To Follow a Shepard
by Mahiro55
Summary: First FanFiction. Self insert I get dropped onto the Citadel with no idea what happened and decide I have to join Shepard since I know what's to come. First story is set before the start of the first Mass Effect and will have new story's when completed.
1. Dropped in

To Follow a Shepard

Preface: My name is Milo Talon, I'm 24 years old born July 8th 1988 small town in northern British Columbia Canada. I'm married and work as an IAT which is an Industrial Audiometric Technician. Basically I test people's hearing. I play way too much video games and read a lot of fantasy. Then one night I decide to go out with my friends for a night on the town.

"My god I'm never drinking again." I say as I lift my head of the park bench were me and friends were drinking last night. The light is bright enough I can't focus with the migraine already forming.

"Are you alright there mister?" I look up and can't get my eyes to focus enough to make out who's talking to me but I'm pretty sure it's not a cop so I'm safe for the moment.

"Ya I just had one too many last night… I think anyways I forget after my friend brought out the whiskey. Where the hell did they go anyways? Oh man, don't tell me they abandoned me here?"

"Well I haven't seen any other humans in this area or anyone near you so I'm not sure. I just wanted to make sure you were alive." _Wait… what? Humans near me?_ I squint my eyes trying to focus on who's talking to me. As my vision clears I jump off the bench in absolute shock as I realise a Salarian is standing in front of me looking startled at me for jumping off the bench. "What? What's wrong?" He said making what I would assume is a look of concern on his face, though it's kind of hard to judge since I've never seen a real live Salarian. But just what the hell is going on, as I look around I start to realise I'm no longer in the park by my house. Well that's putting it mildly as I see that I'm definitely no longer on Earth let alone in the park.

"I uh, nothing I just felt ill is all."

He visibly relaxed as I say this. "Oh all right then. Sorry I don't know many humans so I'm not always sure what your reactions mean when you do them. My name is Tiften by the way." He holds out his hand. I hesitate only for a second before taking his hand.

"I'm Milo, nice to meet you. Thanks for checking on me, I'm pretty messed up still do you mind telling me where am I?" Trying to only look as confused as someone waking up with a hangover would look, not someone about to have a major panic attack.

"Oh you're on Kanto ward in the public park. Where were you at last night that you remember?" I try to dredge up a name and can only come up one.

"Zakera ward I think, it's kinda fuzzy."

"Wow you are a long way from there my friend. Well I hope you feel better, look me up some time if you get lost here again." He gave me a smile and shook my hand again.

"Well what the hell do I do now?" I start looking around and really taking in my surroundings for the first time. I notice it looks like a standard park other than the fact I can see some buildings in the distance that are way too futuristic and way too tall compared too anything I've ever seen on Earth. I see a bunch of aliens walking around the park, I see Turians, Asari, Salarian's, Elcor and some humans. I look down at myself and I seem to be wearing something from this time and not my own. As I look at my clothes I move my fingers and to my surprise an orange interface pops up. "Sweet I have an Omni-Tool." I do a little mini happy dance at this discovery, much too an Asari's amusement as she walks by giggling at my antics. I promptly start blushing like an idiot. So to hide my face I start looking at my tools interface screen. "Let's see what this thing can do." I look through the main menu and see pre-set selections for a new tool and some saved items. "Well it seems I have an id on here and it says my name is the same. Well at least that means I won't be arrested by C-Sec for not having an id." Just to be sure I look at my birthdate so I know some info about myself in case I'm asked then it will match. Well I was born on the same day and month but the year is listed as 2155, that would make me 25 instead of 24 here. Says I was married but she died back on Earth three years ago. Her name was listed as…. Danny. "No!" I break down and cry as I realise even if this wasn't my original wife that my actual wife has been died for a long time. I bawl into my hands for what seems like hours. When I regain my composure I see it's been about forty minutes since I broke down. People seem to try and avoid me as I look a complete mess. Well let's see I was born in the same town but it's a bit bigger now but still not a major city. Most of my background is the same but all my family is dead and apparently I just moved here from Earth. I have an apartment here on the Citadel on Kanto ward. According to a built in map it was a short walk from where I was sitting.

"Well I may as well sit there instead of out here and it's starting to get late anyways." I get up and start walking towards my place all the while checking out my surrounding's. As I put my hands in my pocket I find what appear to be credit chits. A couple of thousand chits and some assorted small ones. "Well I don't think I'll be in any state to cook so may well grab some food." I stop at an Asari restaurant as I'm always trying new food. I walk up to the Asari server. She was about 5' 5" just three inches shorter than my 5" 8", a pale blue complexion with thin white tattoo's running down her crown.

"Hi my name is Amaya, how can I help you?" Giving me a small smile.

"Hi, I've never had Asari food before I was wondering if you could recommend something for take-out? What's your favorite dish?"

Giving me a grin she says "My favorite is Kanafin, it's a pasta with seafood sauce dish from my home colony."

"Well I'll take an order of that with whatever you recommend for a drink as well." I hand over some credits for payment.

"I'll be back with your food in just a few minutes." While I waited I looked up a codex from the Extra-net to start brushing up on my history and technology usage. Shortly there after she returned with my food and asked me to come again. While handing me my bag of food letting her hand brush my a little more than she needed. Giving her a smile I took my food and continued on my way to my apartment.

Arriving at my apartment I found myself at a complete loss as to how to unlock my door and had to spend a minute looking it up. Once inside I proceeded to eat while reading up on myself and everything I might need in the immediate future. Sitting there I stopped to try and figure out how I actually got here. In all the excitement I didn't even think about what might have brought me to what I was going to assume was an alternate reality. "Hmm I can't think of any technology in this universe that could have brought me here." "Well I'm gonna need to figure out something I can do to try and join Shepard since I don't doubt at this point that I'm gonna be going home."

When I woke up the next morning started to look at employments that could help me gain skill to work towards helping Shepard. _Now wait a minute… who was the Shepard in this particular universe. _I had to stop and look up everything on Shepard that I could find. It seems Shepard is called Erin Shepard and is female in this universe. Not much on what her class might be or abilities. Nothing on her history other than apparently she was on Elysium during the Blitz and won the Star of Terra. Other than that I couldn't discern whether she was a renegade or paragon.

After my little foray into Shepard I continued looking for employment and found that C-Sec was hiring and training constantly and they did all their training hands on. Well then I had an idea of what to do, now to go and do it. After I took a ride in an automated taxi which was one of the weirdest experiences of my life I arrived at C-Sec academy wondering around trying to figure out where to go for recruitment.

"Excuse me sir do you need any help?" I stop dead in my tracks. _I know that voice! _Turning around I almost have another giddy happy dance because I'm face to face with none other than Garrus freaking Vakarian!

"Um hi my name is Milo I'm looking to try and enlist in C-Sec could you tell me where I can look into recruitment?"

"My name is Garrus Vakarian I'm a detective here I can show you the way if you like?" Cue another barely restrained dance.

"I would greatly appreciate it if you could."

"Right this way, since I'm not currently assigned any cases I can do your initial questionnaire and testing. We just have any officer that's free do these things so it's no trouble." Walking behind him I must have looked like a complete moron because I had a massive grin plastered on my face and was just about bouncing in a state of absolute giddiness. I was brought to a small cramped office with two desks crammed into a space barely big enough for one let alone two. All over the desk that Garrus sat behind were stacks and stacks of papers, the other desk was oddly bare.

"Well let's get started, what's your last name?"

"Talon."

"What makes you interested in this kind of work?"

"I want to be able to help stop the terrible things that happen every day to regular people." From behind his computer controls were I'm guessing he had my profile pulled up he gave me an odd look then proceeded to start marking some things down on his interface. So it went for almost two hours, questions of morals and aptitudes to see if I was C-Sec material. When finished he sat for a few minutes in silence going over my answers all the while I had to sit in silence feeling much like a bug under the magnifying glass.

"Well" he said looking up finally "I think you might work out for this. I want you to come back tomorrow morning at seven and I will be taking you to be outfitted for our basic training. So the procedure here is whoever the officer is that does your basic introduction will be the one to do all your training and if you are found capable after the initial training, they will become that officers partner unless they already have a partner, or if they don't get along with said officer will be paired with another officer. Now in light of the fact that you are human I'm required to ask if you would umm… prefer an officer of a different race?" This last part he looks almost embarrassed to say and totally stumped me as to why he would ask. I must have looked perplexed because he seemed to take pity on me and said "You know because of our species having been in a small war recently?" He now seemed perplexed as to why I would look relieved for the explanation.

Quickly I cover myself by saying "Oh I'm sorry, I was raised to never judge anyone's race because of the actions of a few or when something like that misunderstanding happened so I honestly just didn't think of that as a reason." He seemed to accept this explanation and just nodded.

"Well then I will be your instructor for the basic training," note I almost did another dance again "so tomorrow morning at let's say 7:30 meet here at my office and I will take you for training introduction. I look forward to working with you mister Talon." Garrus says standing and shaking my hand.

"And I you Officer Vakarian, and it's just Milo please."

"Only if you will call me Garrus." He says with a smile.

"Sounds good Garrus."

_Well I have a job and now I have a way to be able to meet Shepard when she comes here. _Making my way home I think of how I have already made so much progress in such a short time then I realise that I have a ton of work before I'm whipped into shape enough to be considered an asset for what's ahead.


	2. Reality vs Expectation

Chapter 2

Reality vs Expectation

I can't stand being awake this early for virtually any reason mostly because I'm a chronic insomniac, even back in my time. So walking to C-Sec I'm drinking a huge cup of what I guess passes as coffee in this universe. I mean really 10 sugars to take away the grinds taste is pretty bad. Walking into Garrus' office I'm surprised to find the Turian already at work or at least I'm assuming he is starting work and not still here from the night before.

"Good morning Milo, hope you're ready for a long day." He says without even looking up from his desk.

"Well I'm not a morning person but I think I'm ready for today, I already have some coffee." Lifting my cup to him.

"You know we have coffee for the people who want it here already, right?" He says looking up finally.

I shake my head at him saying "Well I didn't think I was technically working here yet so I didn't want to presume using your guy's coffee."

He looks at me quizzically saying "Did you even read the recruitment brochure? We consider anyone in training to be an officer until considered unfit for duty. We don't believe in the slow way of training then bringing out for field work we do everything hands on, once we see what you're good at we decide where you go and if it isn't field work then we take you for training at a school for forensics then if that doesn't suit you we consider you unfit for duty. We do it this way because we need way more field officers than we do technicians as people tend to just go to school for that, then apply for a position with us. So you are right now Deputy Milo Talon until further notice and can use the facilities, if any of the officers hassle you send them my way and it will stop."

As he says this to me I realize the game never captured how emotional Garrus actually was in the first game about his job despite his tendencies to hate paperwork and to cut through red tape. Looking at him in a new light I smile and say "I think you and I are gonna get along fine Garrus."

Staring me down with what could only be considered a glare meant to kill, at least I'm guessing that's what it is since I don't know Turian expressions well he says with the most serious voice "No. We will not if you insist on showing up without a coffee for me. Dextro-Amino version of course." He then broke into a grin from the look on my face I must have expected him to turn serious and tell me to shut up newbie before I calibrate your face to be less ugly. Or something like that. From the tone he used I was floored that he actually said a joke. A real life joke, not a great one mind you but they never portrayed Garrus with a sense of humour until the second game so I was caught a little off guard. I stare at him slack jawed.

"Umm ok I guess." Not really knowing what to say when someone says something like that in a dead serious I'm actually evil so watch out kinda voice.

I must have looked strange because he suddenly jumps up with his hands out saying "That was actually a joke I'm not actually serious or anything." He starts to look panicked when my face contorts but the he looks completely flabbergasted when I spill my coffee on myself and curse because I can't stop laughing even when I burn myself.

"Oh my god Garrus you should have seen your face." I say in a fit tears actually falling down my face. "I didn't expect you to make a joke that bad that seriously it was just too priceless, you completely sold me that you were serious."

At this point he realizes that I'm actually laughing at him and throws me what I can confirm with about 90% certainty is a scowl. He then proceeds to out "Careful who you laugh at or I might re-calibrate your face so you can actually get laid."

If I thought I was laughing before then this was hysterics, I dropped my entire coffee on myself when I doubled over laughing at him. He promptly started cursing under his breath that he always gets stuck with crazy humans. After I regain a little composure I ask him what's up for the day in between bursts of giggling like an idiot.

Huffing he says "Well I was going to take you to be fitted for armor then take you to the range to see what weapons you fit best and check out some hand-hand combat classes with you and teach you to generally be able to handle a fight. Just to be clear you won't be sent with me on any cases where we might get shot at too soon until we can see what your capable of first. But you're a biotic so I don't expect that you have needed much else to defend yourself with."

That last sentence sobered me off my laughing really quickly. "What did you say? Biotics? I'm not a biotic."

Looking utterly confused he grabs a data pad off his desk and reads it then looks at me and says "It says in your confidential file that you are an L3 biotic who was trained briefly in the military then quit."

Um ok now I'm totally freaked out! I looked at my personal file and it didn't mention anything about that. Wait if I was military trained it wouldn't be in my public profile would it? I think they would keep that top secret so they could have biotic spies and the like. I have got figure out if that was transferred to me or if it didn't stick when I came here or whatever happened.

"Um ya sorry I had a major concussion recently and I lost a bit of memory and that part keeps disappearing on me. I remember now that you reminded me. The doctor said my implant needed time for the swelling to go down before I could use my biotics again." Oh god I hope he believes this line of bull coming out of my mouth and that he doesn't know enough about biotics to know if what I was saying was feasible or not.

"Oh ok that makes sense I guess. Kinda explains the laughing too I guess."

_No Garrus that's because I know about your fetish for calibrating instead of paying attention to people._ Not that I let that thought out but at least he just thinks I'm retarded from an injury instead of lying about my history. Going have to figure out the biotic thing fast though.

"Well then let's get on with the day then before I look any stupider in front of you." Without saying a word he just motioned for me to follow. Going through a long series of offices we made our way down to the requisition's officer's office.

"Good morning officer Vakarian, this is the newest addition to the officer core yes?" The Turian behind the desk asks indicating myself.

"Good morning Koring. Yes this is officer Milo Talon. We need him fitted for some standard medium armor. Also some weaponry but we will hit the range first to get an indication of his preferences."

For the next hour the fitted a standard C-Sec armor set. All in standard blue and black. All the armor was ballistic plate ceramic with mesh underlay. According to the specs the plates actually deflect the impact and shatter after enough force then are replaced after a fire fight. The mesh underlay was made from something like a Kevlar mesh that absorbed impacts and could stop small arms fire but nothing of a heavier caliber. The plates just mag locked onto some underlay setup that was way beyond my comprehension, but it made it very convenient for removal and assembly. The mesh came off like a wet suit. All in all I was like a kid in a candy store with the armor. Then they gave me the helmet which as soon as I put it on I was ecstatic because something like hudin the games had come up. Shields, health monitors and an indicator showing my weapons were empty but considering I didn't have any yet that made sense. The shield indicator showed only one bar, which means I can probably add some upgrades, but I would have to look into that later. Along with the armor there is a head phone attached to my Omni-Tool for making reports to headquarters. It seemed to work just like a blue tooth but it's voice recognition worked perfectly unlike every single Bluetooth I had ever used.

"Take a walk around and see how it fits." Koring says to me with a wave of his hand. I start walking and marveling at how easy it was to move. "How does it feel?"

"This…is…awesome!" I do a little hop jump around much to both Turians amusement.

Garrus shakes his head trying to cover a laugh with a cough but failing miserably. Clipping my helmet to my belt I say "What's next?"

"Well what's your weapon's experience?" Koring ask opening a wall cabinet that help a weapon rack. "We require all officers keep a heavy pistol and any other weapons are your choice."

"Well I've fired pistols, shotguns and a few rifles but only in sport." Nodding Koring grabs a standard avenger rifle, predator pistol and a katana shotgun,

"Well let's try these out. Follow me." Walking out of his office we make our way through a few doors and we found ourselves to an indoor shooting range. There was a few other people there practicing as well. The targets were holograms that once shot relayed damage and accuracy readings to individual terminals at each shooting terminal. Walking up to an empty one Koring places each gun down on the shooters bench for me and has me sign a release form and tells me to come see him whenever I need anything for them.

Garrus then proceeds to pick up each weapon and give me a low down on each weapons operation, maintenance and anything I would need for maintaining them all by myself. Then a long speech about safety, he seems to be reciting it from memory and not really doing it by choice. "Ok" he hands me each weapon one by one and shows how they clip to my suit. "Now take each one and press the sync button on the left of each ones trigger and they should be registered to your suit now so they will indicate when they are going to overheat. Because you have sensors in your suit gauntlets they pick up to your suit and yours alone. Being C-Sec they will not be auto-locked to your suit and no one else's short of an order from a superior officer to lock them out or if a really good hacker gets a hold of them."

"So if I don't have my helmet on how do I tell if my weapon is going to overheat?" I ask while admiring how each weapon folds in and out to be stored.

"Well each one depending on any mods you add will have a set number of shots before they overheat if fired rapidly so you can count but that's not practical with automatics like the avenger, so the only other way is have your omni-tool set to combat mode and it will show an indicator for your weapon but that can be distracting. I just recommend if not wearing your helmet to just fire in bursts and give in a little bit of cool down time in between, plus that forces you to pick your shots more carefully."

Nodding I turn and say "That makes sense. What does this thing do?" indicating a switch that saw on each weapon.

"That is a built in target aid that if you have enemy's 'painted' or selected while you have your helmet on the weapon will auto-correct your aim as much as possible to them if you are aiming in that direction. Without your helmet your suit can be hard wired to a visor like mine that will do the same thing."

"Cooooool! Any other advice?" I say with a low whistle while drawing my predator and starting the target holograms.

"Ya don't embarrass yourself." He said with a grin.

Taking a basic stance with my legs spread shoulder width I aim down the sights at the first target.

"BLAM" The pistol doesn't kick too badly but it's been a while since I've been target shooting so I just graze it in the shoulder. "BLAM BLAM BLAM" I try firing a few consecutively and my aim gets worse.

"Slow down your shots and breathe out as you fire." Garrus says softly so as to not distract me.

I slowly aim and release my breath as I squeeze the trigger "BLAM" This time the shot hits the target in the chest but not quite a kill shot.

"Better, once you progress in the range we will move to the combat simulator where you will learn to shoot while under fire." As he talks he indicates a room with a large window, inside I can see various barricades and random walls with debris scattered within to simulate a real combat environment.

For the next few hours Garrus had me shoot targets then when he said I had thoroughly shown the hologram thugs who was boss he took me to the presidium to run a patrol. He explained that new recruits start in areas without much chance of violence then once they gained a grasp of procedure and got experience they were sent on patrols in increasingly more dangerous environments until judged fit to patrol alone or to take a case with supervision.

As we walked the length of the embassy district of the Presidium, Garrus turned and said "If I have any cases sent my way while you are training I will judge if you are fit to help me or I will pass you on to another officer for the duration of the case. I will more than likely bring you unless it's a severely dangerous case. Well that's our shift for the day." He stops and starts tapping on his Omni-Tool, suddenly mine starts beeping at me. "Here, start reading that it's a copy of Citadel laws. Every day while walking the beat I will probably ask you about some up till were I figure you should have read. See you in the morning." With a wave he heads towards the elevator that heads to C-Sec academy.

As I start walking to a weapons mod shop I had passed earlier, I check out some more things on my Omni-Tool, I find out how to access my bank account. Looking over it see that the box things I had seen all over were the equivalent of an ATM to give you chits. Also I notice that C-Sec give their officers pay every day and gave me a bonus for signing up. My account was now sitting at 50,000 credits. I promptly do a fist pump then decide that I want to go and find a gun shop and look at some stuff then get supper and head home.

"This one offers you greetings" as I walk into the nearest shop that sells some weapon mods a Hanar floats up to me "Does the honorable C-Sec officer need any help?"

"Um yes I'm here to look at some equipment for myself. Do you sell any eye visors for weapons?"

"Why yes good officer we do if you will come over to the catalogue you may browse all of our selection and make a choice." The Hanar indicated a terminal on the far wall.

"Thank you. I'm Milo Talon." Holding out my hand the Hanar puts a tentacle in it for a greeting.

"This one's face name is Burns Brightly. This one is honored to meet you Milo Talon. We are offering a 10% discount promotion today. Have a pleasant day."

I move over to the console and start tapping on things until I get the gist of how the catalogue works. It seemed very similar to many games I'd played. While looking in the visor section I found a few that I like but they are around 70,000 credits. I have to figure out what a credit to dollar equivalent would be. Instead of a visor I buy small pad that fits on the inside of my wrist plate that shows an indicator for my currently held weapons heat. The plus is its considered outdated so it only costs 2,000 credits. Happy with my purchases I take a cab back to my ward and start heading home when I decide to stop and pick up some food from that Asari shop again as I was quite pleased with the food the other night.

"Hi my name is Amaya…wait didn't I help you yesterday? I didn't know you were a C-Sec officer. If I had I would have given you a deal. We tend to give deals for law enforcement and military officers." The young Asari looks abashed at what she seems to think is a serious insult. _Wait a minute I need to stop thinking things like she is young considering she could be centuries old already, just guessing by looks won't work anymore._ With that thought running through my head I try to placate her.

"Don't worry about it. I just joined C-Sec today so don't sweat it."

"Sweat it?" she give me a seriously confused look "I'm not sweating. Why would say I am? Is that an insult?" She starts to look a little offended now.

"No no it's a human expression it just means don't worry. It's not meant as an insult." I say quickly throwing my hands up.

"Oh" she starts to turn an interesting shade of deep ocean blue now in what I'm assuming is an Asari's version of a blush. "I'm so sorry I didn't mean to get mad I should have just asked what you meant when you said it. I'm so sorry, let me make it up to you officer… you said your name was Milo Talon yesterday right?" I nod "We'll let me buy your supper for tonight."

"No that's quite alright it was just a misunderstanding. You don't need to do that." I say giving her a smile to try and calm her down. "I will however take an order of whatever your second favorite dish is for tonight and some more of that drink you gave me yesterday."

Not saying anything but still blushing she nods her head vigorously and just about bolts from her hostess station to get my order. Coming back she mutely hands me my bag while bowing to hide her blush and says "Pease come again and please forget what I said earlier!"

Trying to hide my amusement I take my bag and say "I will and seriously don't worry about it it's not a big deal." She seems to blush harder at my dismissal of what she perceived as an insult. About to leave I suddenly remember my problem about my biotics. "Miss Amaya if you feel that strongly about it you coud help me with a problem I'm having with my Biotics."

"Its Amaya Koraness. But just call me Amaya. What's the problem?"

"Well I recently suffered a head injury and all my training for my Biotics doesn't seem to be working anymore. So I was wondering if you could maybe give me some pointers sometime?"

She turns back to blushing or at least thats what I'm going to call it for now on and says "I would be happy to teach you how Asari Biotics work if you would like. How about tomorrow night after your off shift, I dont work tomorrow so let's meet up at the park their" indicating the park I woke up in the other day "at let's say 6:00 o'clock?"

"Sounds good to me Amaya. I'l see you tomorrow."

With that I start walking away and look back to see her looking my way and then jump and hide as she sees that I'm looking at her. _Well now what was that all about?_ I decided that I would need to look up more on different species and their facial and body indicators, just to be sure I don't do something stupid and it probably wouldn't hurt for the job as well.

Getting back to my apartment I start reading up on Citadel laws and current technology, after I start to go cross eyed I begin to realise that most of the technical specs were way above my head. _Well what did I expect that everything would be the same as the game and all nicely labeled to tell me what to do?_ With that I settled in for what was definitely going to be a long trip to learning to truly understand this new universe around me.


	3. What's this feeling

Chapter 3

What's this feeling?

Waking up the next morning I felt a little strange like I was forgetting something, it was an odd feeling like there was something just on the edge of recognition. Shaking it off I hopped in to the bathroom for a shower before heading off to work. I got to say the showers in the future are pretty awesome they still used water but also used a sub sonic particle ray to pull dirt and the like out of your pores. _Huh? How did I know how that technology worked? _Feeling something at the edge of my consciousness that I should be remembering again I got an uneasy feeling like something was wrong or missing. Not able to figure it out I try and brush it off and get ready for work.

Putting on my armor I snap all my guns in place and head out. Grabbing some food and two coffee one for me and an amino-dextro one for Garrus, I make my way to our office. Walking in about twenty minutes before my shift I'm surprised to find Garrus inside already. He looks like he hasn't left at all.

I walk up to him handing him his coffee "Morning Garrus. Did you go home at all?"

Looking at the cup confused he says "I said that was a joke you know, and I got some sleep last night I just like being in early to go over any information I get on old cases that are in limbo. I just got some info that we are going to go check out later, about an organ smuggling ring."

_Why does that sound familiar? _Something wasn't right. For the third time that day something was nagging at me. What was it? "Hmm ok then, what are we starting with today?"

"We are going to go to the range again then were going to check in about those hand to hand combat classes that I forgot about yesterday. Then we are going to go and do some work on this information I have." Standing up he comes around his desk indicating for me to follow him.

We make our way to the range again we set up for me to practice. I draw my Predator and take aim, "BLAM, BLAM, BLAM."

Garrus does a double take as he wasn't paying attention when my shots all hit in the expert circles. "How did you do that? I thought you said you didn't really remember how to shoot?"

"Well I'm starting to remember my military training." _Hold on a sec I actually do remember. Wait why am I surprised? I did a few years training and honed my Biotoics. Why am I surprised that I know this stuff._

Seeing a look of confusion on my face Garrus walks up and puts a talon on my shoulder. "Are you ok? You look like you've seen a ghost."

Shaking it off I put my pistol away "I'm fine I just need to walk it off, I just feel a little off today is all."

Looking a little concerned, Garrus just looks at me for a minute then says with a little concern in his voice "If you feel off maybe you should go home for the day?"

"Well I think I'm fine let's just continue with the day and If I suddenly feel terrible I'l let you know."

Still looking a little concerned he just shrugs his shoulders and says "Ok well since you seem to be starting to remember your training, do you need the hand to hand classes you think?"

"Well I know I need to start working out and brushing up on it but I think if I go to the gym I'll be good." Then having an idea for the fact that Garrus doesn't seem to leave the office I say "Hey would you like to go to the gym and train with me? You could be my sparring partner. I think it would be a good match, you look like you would have reach and I think I'm probably more flexible." _Wait why does that seem to be funny in my head? _Now Garrus looks slightly uncomfortable.

"Um sure I guess that would work. Well let's go and start working on this information I've got. We are going to a small warehouse were we have got a couple of organs deal going down. We have some evidence to go over then we will see what we can turn up."

Following him we go out to a C-Sec issue patrol car which seemed identical to a cab, at least as far as I could see other than police colours on the side and a big C-Sec printed down the side. We take-off and start heading to the wards, as we pass over the presidium I can't help but think there's no way I could get over how awesome everything looked from the air. After a brief flight we come to a district filled with warehouses. Setting down we go around the corner of the building to find a police line set up and several regular officers and forensics officers looking over the alley the entrance was in. As we pass the cordon we make our way over to a beat officer who appears in charge.

"What do we got deputy?" Garrus asks as he pulls up his Omni-Tool to start taking notes.

"Sir, we caught a Salarian and Turian trying to make a sale to an undercover officer. This is the biggest shipment we've intercepted so command had us take them down instead of just setting up a new one. It seems they are low level in ring so that rules out the theory that it's just a murderer hacking people up and selling their organs. We haven't done anything else as we were waiting for you sir."

During this speech I had started to inspect the stacked crates. Looking through the contents I start to notice something odd. "Hey Garrus how rare is it for a Turian to be AB+?"

Turning from the deputy Garrus looks contemplative for a moment then says "Well it's pretty rare why do you ask?"

"Well did you guys notice that at least three of these crates contain Turian livers labeled AB+? Wouldn't finding that many people with a liver for sale that's this rare be pretty rare?"

"Huh your new partner their makes a pretty good point. Out of all the organs we have collected we didn't even think about how rare some of them were and the fact that we had so many of them." The deputy says with a look at the stacks and stacks of crates.

"Well let's bring some of these back to C-Sec and do some work on them." Garrus motions to some of the officers to come over. "I want you to load up a couple sample of each type of organ and blood type and send them to the labs. Tell them I want to know as much about them as possible."

With that done we walk over to where the two prisoners are sitting to start questioning them. Garrus indicates for me to take the lead as I had been reading interrogation techniques from the law book he had given me.

Looking through the notes the other officer gave to me and Garrus on our Omni-Tools I pull up their names. "Mister Silurn and mister Dakken you're both under arrest for smuggling illegal organs. C-Sec would like to cut you both a deal if you will give us your employer and testify in court." The Turian just glares at me and the Salarian seemed rather bored. Garrus not really seeming to like this walks behind them and cuffs them both up-side the head.

"You might want to answer my partner here or else we just start the process to book you, at that point we won't be offering a deal. You know the penalty for this is quite high, 35 years in prison with no chance of parole. It goes up from regular smuggling since it involves organs that are generally obtained through murder."

At the mention of this the Salarian started to look a little agitated, while the Turian shot him a murderous glare then proceeded to spit on my boots. This of course was a bad idea because Garrus promptly cuffs him then grabs him by the collar dragging him to his feet and slams him into a wall. I rush over to Garrus as he looks like he is about to knee him in the back were the kidneys would be on a human, and with our armor on and the suspect having just clothing on it would probably do a lot of damage. As I grab Garrus to make him stop I nod toward the Salarian as he looks ready to panic now.

I turn and yell, "deputy come and take mister Dakken down to the station and book him. Take mister Silurn here" indicating the Salarian "to the station and put him in an interrogation room."

Nodding his approval Garrus starts toward our waiting car. "Nicely done Milo, but why did you stop me with the rude one?"

"Well I saw that the other was sufficiently scared and also you would have broken something on him if I had let you continue."

Garrus stopped and turned around "Well that's true but sometimes you need to do some things like that to get what you need from the suspects."

"While I understand what you mean I think you just about went too far with him. It's one thing to intimidate a suspect but you don't need to go so far as to become like those you are trying to capture."

"Hmm well I do see what you mean; it is hard sometimes to distinguish when it's going too far."

With a nod he turned around and we got into our car and made our way back to C-Sec headquarters. When we returned we started to interrogate Silurn, working on him for a few hours all we could get out of him is the fact they were contacted by someone who seemed to work at a major hospital and that he was paid through a separate party. All in all we didn't get much of use as the hospital had hundreds of employees and they weren't even sure what species the contact actually was.

At the end of our shift before I left our office I stop and ask Garrus "So since we aren't on shift tomorrow do you want to meet me at the gym tomorrow morning so we can work out and train?"

"Ya that's sounds good to me. After maybe we can hit up the bar."

Grinning I say " Sounds like a good plan. You know any good bars?"

"Well we can go to Chora's Den or Dark Star it just depends on what kind of entertainment we want." he says with a sly grin.

A little confused I just nod not really sure what he means. I then look at my Omni-Tool and see what time it was and give a yelp of surprise.

"What is it?" Garrus ask.

"I forgot I have to meet someone in a few minutes."

"Oh really? This someone wouldn't happen to be of the female variety would they?"

Nodding my head I don't notice him giving me a leer then he says " Well you better hurry. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."

"Um Garrus I don't think that applies here and she is just an Asari I kinda know who is going to give me a hand with my Biotics."

"Right, right and people say I'm clueless." With a shake of his head he just shooed me out will chuckling.

Not really understanding him I stop then realise I'm going to be even later and start running for the cab center.

I got back to the district with only a few minutes to spare so I decided to forgo taking off my armor for the moment. Running into the park with a slightly panicked look on my face I made a few people nervous as usually a C-Sec officer running meant something was wrong. Forcing myself too calm down and stop running I spied Amaya at a section of the park that I hadn't seen before.

"Sorry I'm late; I hope you weren't waiting long!"

Turning to me Amaya saw that I was wearing my armor and said "Don't worry about it if anything I'm sorry for forcing you to run straight from work. You should have gone home to change if you wanted to."

"No it's fine I need to work my power while wearing my armor anyways. So what is all this stuff?" I say while for the first time taking in all the strange equipment around me. "It looks kinda weird."

I started inspecting the equipment which seemed to be a series of tubes some with balls in them some filled with liquid with different colours in them. There was also a series of what looked kind of like a series of teeter-totter's but without seats.

With a wave she replied "These are for people with Biotics. They are meant to train your powers to gain strength and precision by making you do specific tasks like move the mall through the tube without dropping it or letting it touch the sides. For strength training you can try and push your opponents side down on these." She finished by pointing at the teeter-totter things.

"Swwwweeeeet! That is really cool, there isn't anything like this on earth."

"Well humans haven't had Biotics for long, were as Asari are all born with it. We all are taught to use it at least a bit. Some take commando training and learn it to a more deadly degree. I have basic commando training." She says somewhat embarrassed at the last part.

"Why did you only take basic commando training?" I ask without really paying attention to what she was doing. If I had I would have noticed her blushing again.

"Well I didn't want to join the military. Plus generally being a commando is considered, how do you humans put it? It makes you seem 'butch'." She says the last bit with an extreme blush and looks like she wants to crawl in a hole and hide.

"Why? I think it's pretty cool when a women knows how fight and can still look like you do." Once the last word left my mouth I realised how what I said sounded and looked up sharply to see her looking beyond embarrassed and she also seemed rather… pleased? "Um I mean at least that what I think." suddenly I felt way beyond awkward, after all I only lost my wife… _Wait why am I feeling this awkward she died three years ago. Why does my mind keep trying to say something different?_ Not understanding what was going on I was suddenly hit with a wave of uneasiness again. Trying to change topics and to take my mind off of whatever was making my mind so confused I explained that I'd had a severe concussion recently and that I couldn't control my power anymore. Looking relieved for the change in mood she proceeded to go through the warm up exercises that were pretty well universal to every species to help open all the pathways in the body that related to Biotics. Feeling the familiar sensation of dark energy rising I tried to grasp it to move one of the more basic training devices. I strained trying to concentrate the energy into being but it seemed just beyond my control.

"That's pretty good all things considered." Amaya proceeded to go over all basic theory of controlling Biotics. After she had me just try and bring a small ball of dark energy into being and just sustain it. After we proceeded to go through the basic movements of the easier moves involved in combat. After that we were both beat and decided to call it a day.

"Thank you so much Amaya it feels good to be able to even use my powers even slightly again it felt weird not being able to get any of them to work." I give her a small bow like students give to their teachers in Asari culture. She seemed taken aback that I knew the custom. Grinning in my head I felt much better about losing sleep the night before to read that article on Asari cultural habits. "I'm off shift tomorrow and I was wondering if you could train with me some more?"

Looking pleased she says "I have to work the morning shift but if you don't mind it I could help you in the afternoon?"

Smiling I reply "That sounds good. I have combat and physical training with my partner tomorrow as well."

Upon hearing this she suddenly seemed horrified "Oh I'm so sorry I didn't realise you were married. Forget everything I've said."

I start laughing so hard I double over, while she looks absolutely confused as all hell. "Oh god, hahaha I'm sorry I'm not laughing at you." Tears rolling down my face "I meant my partner from C-Sec, his name is Garrus he is a Turian."

Sudden realisation hits her as she understands the miscommunication, then she just as suddenly realises what her comment divulged about her feelings. She went such a dark shade of blue that if she weren't Asari I would have thought she was suffering from asphyxiation.

As it was I tried to gain control of myself I say with a low soothing tone "Thank you Amaya but right now isn't a good time but don't think I'm not interested." With a smile of appreciation she nods. We then decide on some exercises for me to do in my spare time and plan to meet the next day after lunch.

As I walk home my mind is once again telling me something is wrong but I can't quite figure it out. As I lay down to sleep absolutely exhausted my mind starts to relax, when suddenly my mind starts screaming at me that I felt uneasy and wrong because my memories of my life, or my other life I should say are disappearing. _I NEED TO REMEMBER! THE REAPERS, MY WIFE, EVERYTHING I AM IT'S DISSAPEARING!_

With a final scream in my brain the darkness of sleep takes me and my realisation with it into oblivion.


	4. The Cost of Living

**Might be a little slow at updating as I gotta go out of town for work but will try to get something wrote down will working. Just a reminder all reviews welcome tell me if I mess up anything from the universe badly as Im trying to not mess up the canon too much yet. Also send me any ideas you might have or advice. Much obliged :)**

Chapter 4

The Cost of living

"Beep, beep, beep" groaning I roll over and hit my alarm. Blinking trying to focus on the time I roll out of bed and make my way to the shower. After turning it on I jump in and suddenly I'm very awake as I accidently turned only the hot water on. "AGH! Holy crapping devil on a skateboard that hurts." Authors note: I have some pretty weird swear words in life as well After my shower I look in the mirror, I have tattoo's on my chest, arms and back. The burn from the shower is pretty bad it runs all over my tats and most of my body. I didn't realise that the showers units here got that hot. _Well this workout is going to hurt like hell!_ Rushing out the door I almost forget my workout gear as I'm late already to meet Garrus at the gym.

Dodging people I make my way into the heart of the gym to find Garrus waiting by the cardio machines. "What the hell happened to you?" he asks looking at the burns on my body.

"Stupid shower, accidently hit the hot water only and burned myself."

"Nice tattoos by the way." He says while looking over the ones that I have showing with my muscle shirt. Poking the claddagh pendant on my arm he asks "What's that one mean?"

Muttering I answer "It was on mine and my wife's wedding ring. I got it just after we got married."

Since Garrus saw my profile he knew my wife was dead and I'm guessing by the look of embarrassment on his face he regretted his question. "Um I'm sorry I didn't mean to bring up a difficult subject."

Waving off his comment I say "No worries man it's been a few years now. It will never be an easy subject but I can manage."

"Ok then. Why did you call me 'man' just now?"

"Sorry its slang from where I'm from. It doesn't mean anything in particular when said in that manner."

"Well whatever then. Let's get started then." He said with a shrug, then turned and walked to the free wait equipment.

For the next hour and a half we worked out hard then went to the sauna to unwind a bit. Afterwards we went to the sparring circle. Garrus proceeded to show me the Turian basics for their military's martial arts. After giving me a severe beating all the more painful for the burn on my body, I showed him the human equivalent of Krav Maga which had become the standard hand-to-hand for basic training in the biotics program.

"Damn that is some seriously good martial arts you got there Milo."

"It's one of the most dangerous types on Earth. But I prefer Tai Chi for perfecting the form of all the martial arts."

"What's Tai Chi?"

Stepping into a starting pose I start showing him the basics of the flowing movements and how it centered the body and mind. After finishing the last of our cool down exercises we went and changed to go for lunch.

We leave the gym and hit up a restaurant that sells food for both species and sit down for lunch. "So Garrus every day I come to work fairly early and you don't seem to have left. Do you even go home at all?"

"I haven't been going home much lately… it's this case with the organ smugglers, it's starting to get to me. I mean someone is pretty fucking messed up to do this."

"I know what you mean. When do we hear back about the tests being run on those ones we confiscated the other day?"

"Hmm they had a problem at the lab; they aren't going to get to them until next week."

He stops briefly as our food has just arrived. Eating we discuss what is going on in council space as I haven't been paying attention to galactic news. Batarians are getting kicked out of all the space that was contested by humans and their own species. The Asari were complaining about the Quarians being near some of their colonies again. The only other thing of note was that the Turians and Humans were going to be co-developing a ship of cutting edge design to help inter species relations. Stopping suddenly at this news my head started hurting like something was forcing its way out. Suddenly my Omni-Tool started beeping. Looking down I saw that I had a new message; opening it didn't say who sent it and contained only a short message 'Don't worry about thinking you are missing something once you need to remember you will. A friend.'

"Well this is weird." Showing Garrus the message he simply shrugged his shoulders. Deleting it we finished our lunch and I left to meet Amaya for my training.

After several hours Amaya commented that I seemed to be getting back control of my powers quite rapidly. She also kept commenting on my form but seemed to be not talking about my movements for my power. She made several other attempts at flirting that became more and more thinly veiled as it went on especially since I wasn't really reacting to them. We finished up my exercises and then I took her out for dinner as thanks.

Half way through out meal I looked up and said "Amaya I hope you don't think I'm not interested in you I just haven't really done much dating lately." I explained how my wife had been killed by a street gang back on Earth and I just hadn't done much after it happened.

"Well I'm sorry if I've been to forward if I had known I wouldn't have tried." She says to me with a look of sorrow and pity.

"Don't worry about it. I think it would be fine for you to keep trying I'm just gonna have to get used to it." I say flashing a grin.

Over the next two weeks I continue work and training. In between Amaya takes me out several times to help me get used to the idea of dating again. She actually has some succes as I start to come out of my shell and truly enjoy her company.

After work one day I rush to leave the office and Garrus chuckles and says "So you still not seeing her or has that status changed?"

Shooting him a glare then a grin I say with some glee "I think it's coming along nicely. We are going to watch a movie at her place tonight."

"Ooooh moving quickly I see." He says with his best look of innocence.

"Oh screw you, ya damn Turian. You can only criticize how I date after I actually see you look twice at a woman let alone go on a date with them. I know most don't look like a sniper rifle but you might find one that has a collection of them or is good at calibrating them." This earns me a growl with a death glare as he shoos me out the door.

Getting to Amaya's she greets me at the door wearing a shimmer dress in a beautiful shade of red that contrasts with her blue skin wonderfully. "You look lovely today." I say while giving her a once over earning myself a blush and a embarrassed face that made her look cute as all hell. Going into her kitchen so we can start supper she tells me about an appointment with a doctor to get an annual check up done. She explains that like humans that Asari who use their Biotics often need annual checks if not more often.

We spend an evening cuddled on her couch and she seems to be trying her hardest to get me to stay over but I decline saying that I had to work very early as we had a break through with our case and had some interrogations in the morning.

"I say no now but I don't work the day after so how about I come over tomorrow night?" I ask while holding her chin up to my face.

"Hmm that's sounds delightful." She purrs while leaning in to give me a kiss. We keep our lips locked together just enjoying the feel of the other.

With the movie ended I force myself to leave knowing if I didn't I won't be going to work tomorrow and she will miss her appointment.

The next morning I meet Garrus at a clinic to arrest a Turian who apparently owned the liver the lab tested but was apparently still alive somehow and still working. Getting to the clinic for the arrest Garrus flexes his mandibles out in surprise while commenting "I wasn't expecting you to come in this morning. Figured you'd stay at Amaya's and call in 'sick' today."

Shooting him a glare I say "I knew it was a bad idea letting you too meet. Now all you do is plot evil deeds."

Laughing at me he just turns and waits for the officers to finish dragging out our suspect to bring in for the investigation.

Returning to the station we meet behind the mirror to the interrogation room to discuss how we were going to get him to tells us what was going on.

"Well I doubt it's him doing it, but he does work for doctor Saleon who is more likely to be the culprit. I want to go in and scare him then you can come in and do the whole 'good' cop thing that you keep going on about." I give a chuckle. He had started coming over to watch movies with me and Amaya and they had both watched some old Earth cop shows at my insistence. Garrus in particular had liked Dirty Harry saying that was how it should be done.

From my side of the glass I watch as Garrus starts asking question. Not being particularly inclined to help us tells him to stick it. This true to style warrants a cuff from Garrus. As the suspect starts to curse him out Garrus starts to get mad and starts to actually lay into him when suddenly he starts bleeding. Rushing into the room I yell "What the hell happened?"

"Are you alright?" Garrus says trying to see what had happened but the other Turian just starts to get more and more agitated and star insisting he was fine and must leave to go back to work. Not waiting for permission Garrus rips his shirt off.

What we see almost makes me sick. Covering his body is dozens of badly sewn up incisions. Almost all of them looked fresh and most of them were bleeding now.

Realising the jig was up and that he needed medical attention the Turian starts babbling that it was in fact doctor Saleon who had done this to him and also all of his coworkers and some patients as well who he made disappear after. "He told me to get you to let me go. If I didn't come back by about now he was going to flee the Citadel!"

Giving each other a look me and Garrus run out the door yelling at someone to look after the suspect and for a trio of officers to follow us explaining on the way what was happening. Jumping into a squad car I find shuttle registered to Saleon and that it was prepping for launch. Relaying this information to Garrus we go to Citadel control.

Rushing in, we run up to the waiting controller who was informed of our arrival. "Quick! Lock down his shuttle control!"

"It's no good sir he has already taken off." She says fingers flying over her interface.

"Then shoot him down. NOW!" Garrus yells at her.

At this moment C-Sec control calls my head set "Officer Talon we have seen the footage from the docks, Saleon took his employees and a patient hostage when he boarded his ship. You are here by ordered to let him go."

I relay this information to Garrus who becomes infuriated turning his head set to the call as well and says "Their dead anyways! We need to try and disable that ship."

"Garrus this is Executor Venari Pallin. You are here by ordered to not open fire on that ship!" Throwing his head peace down in disgust Garrus tells the controller to just send the military after the shuttle. But it was too late the shuttle jumped the relay and was gone.

Heading to the clinic I try to calm Garrus down and tell him they might find the shuttle and the captives still. He just sullenly shakes his head to placate me.

Once we arrive at the clinic we start going through it with the Citadel's equivalent of CSI. Looking in the back rooms we find more crates of organs and many operation rooms covered in blood and filled with strange equipment. Looking through his files we realise he has been causing his victims to grow extra organs inside themselves then harvesting them to sell on the black market.

One of the officers first on the scene comes up and tells me that there was only one patient on the schedule for that day. He hands me a data pad that logs all the patients. Leafing through until I get to today's date I look at the name.

Garrus come running in as his partner starts screaming. Running up he tries to get something from him. The other officer doesn't know what happen and just tells him that he handed him the patient log. Picking it out of Milo's hands he reads '9:30 Amaya Koraness'


	5. Into the Unknown

Chapter 5

Into the Unknown

Over the next three years me and Garrus put out a lot of effort to try and find Saleon even trying to get different information brokers. Having Amaya taken changed me to start acting like Garrus when it came to how we handle criminals. During the course of the three years we ended up getting rid of multiple smuggling rings. When we found a human trafficking ring we ended it violently. At nights I tended to work, train not much else. Garrus reverted to his gloomy dangerous self when it came to criminals.

One morning when I actually happened to be at home and not working. I was cooking in the kitchen while also watching the news on my TV. Watching the current news and drinking coffee I got a message on my Omni-Tool. Pulling it up I see this 'It's time.' All of a sudden I look up and hear "The colony of Eden Prime was attacked yesterday. Eyewitness accounts say the attacks were by Geth. The colony was saved by an N7 marine operative named Commander Shepard who you might recall was the saviour of Elysium during the Skyllian Blitz."

Suddenly I fall over nearly blacking out with excruciating pain as my head feels like an anvil just blindsided me. Screaming out in near delirium I find myself realising what happened to me. "Oh my god I remember!" Suddenly all my old memories are shoved into the memories that I've now realised had taken over my brain. I realise that I remember both sets of memories. _What the hell is going on? I can remember everything like they are both my actual memories. But what the hell, I know about Mass Effect but I can't seem to bring up any details._

Pain still wracking my head I get a call from Garrus "Hey Milo. What the hell are you ok?"

"I tripped and cracked my head on my counter. I'll be fine. What's going on?"

Giving me a look of concern he says "Well as long as you're sure. I need your help, we have been given a job directly from the Executor, we need to investigate Saren Arterius. That human Commander has accused him of treason saying he sent the Geth to destroy Eden Prime and that he was leading them."

That part I remember, but feigning ignorance I say "What really? Ok what are we doing first?"

"We are going to the office and we will need to look through all his records that we can. We need to do it in the next ten hours so run down here now!"

Crap no wonder he never got anything on him that's no time to actually find something concrete. "Right I'm on my way now."

As I made my way to the office I started looking over my memories and figuring out what I actually could remember and what I couldn't. "Beep beep." I got a another message on my Omni-Tool. 'You will remember things that are important as you need it. My only advice is don't screw with things too much. PS: Don't bother replying to this I'm only going to reply when I ask you something."

_"What the hell is that? Don't answer? To hell with whoever this is!"_

Writing as I walk I tell this person 'Screw you what the hell are you talking about?'

Going into the office I have to forget the message as Garrus bombards me with files to go through while saying "Hopefully we can find something in all this. This crap is just what isn't classified." We proceeded to spend ten straight hours going bloody cross-eyed only finding some questionable investments in Binary Helix developing weapons on Noveria that aren't exactly legal.

"Well this will have to be enough. Let's go to the tower and present our evidence." I look up and get a massive grin on my face as I realize that I get to meet THE Commander Shepard. I'm also happy that I get to meet Kaiden and Ashley.

Getting to the Citadel tower we meet the Executor. He very promptly told us to not waste the council's time. Hearing the tower elevator I look left and my jaw actually dropped. Video games don't do anything in this universe justice. I realised this when I first saw aliens but seeing Shepard HOLY CRAP she was hot! She was the stock Shepard with red hair and green eyes, she was about 5' 5" and built very petit with a powerful looking body despite being small. Ashley was probably about 5' 7" and built a bit bigger, not macho but very powerfully built none the less. Kaiden was 5' 11" rough and very barrel chested and had huge arms. I suddenly realized that my boss had already walked off and that Garrus saw me staring and started nudging me to pull my jaw up.

He then turns to Shepard and says "Commander, Garrus Vakarian and Milo Talon here are the officers in charge of investigating Saren."

"It doesn't seem like he wanted to listen." She gestures after Pallin.

"Executor Pallin, our boss. He doesn't believe what we have brought to him is good enough. I know that Saren is hiding something!"

They proceeded to banter about why a Turian is trying to bring down Saren. I laugh saying "Garrus is definitely not racist except with his jokes, which are bloody terrible." Garrus glares at me trying to kill me with his eyes.

Ashley gives me a weird look saying "You too seem pretty friendly."

"We have been partners for years now. Of course beaky and me are friends." If he was trying to kill me before with his look now I'm pretty sure he was trying to get my brain to implode.

Shepard looks like she is trying to hide a grin and failing and Ashley looked like she thought we were nuts, while Kaiden looked like he was trying to stay stoic but still smirking and said "Shepard I think the council is ready for us."

"Good luck Shepard." I say as Garrus opens his mouth to do the same.

Instead he says "Hopefully they will listen to you." With that she walks away with a wave to us. "How does your jaw feel on the floor? Comfy?"

"Dunno beaky, how's your calibrating going?" Ok scratch that NOW he was trying to make my brain explode. Laughing, I just start walking out of the tower. Garrus in tow trying to blow up the back of my head. "So what's next buddy?"

"Grrrr, well we are going to the wards to walk beat for the time being since we don't have any open cases."

"Hmmm, ok then let's go."

Wondering down to the wards we end up breaking up something at Flux's when we get two separate calls, one of suspicious people near the clinic and one of another fight in Chora's Den.

"You take the one at the clinic, I'll go to Chora's Den." With that he starts off towards the clinic while I head the other direction. Getting there I notice Shepard at the bar as well and the call was actually about Wrex. Holy crap he his way too damn huge even for a Krogan. Wrex was easily eight feet tall and probably 400-500 pounds. The call was from the bartender to get rid of Wrex. Waving to Shepard who gave me a smile as she goes by I walk up to Wrex.

"Excuse me Wrex?" I come up to him.

"What do you want human?" He glares his response at me if that makes sense.

"I've been instructed to bring you to C-Sec academy for threats against Fist."

"How do you expect to do that? You look kinda soft." He smirks at me.

'Well I gotta say that I would love to go toe to toe with you. I mean that honestly. Also I would actually prefer to help you kill Fist but I have my orders." With that I pull out my shotgun before he realizes what's going on.

"Hahahaha human you have a set on you! Alright I'll come." He shakes with mirth all the while ignoring me as he walks away without waiting for me at all.

I put my gun away and follow him. "So, Wrex why you after Fist?" I think I know the answer but it seems kinda hazy.

"I'm not gonna give you a confession to arrest me human." He growls at me.

"Ha, no Wrex you don't need to worry about me. I really hate Fist I honestly would help you." I say with a lot of heat in my voice.

Looking at me sideways and looking like he is pondering he say's "What's with you? You don't seem care about me killing someone, aren't you a cop?"

"I HATE Fist. I hate criminals who get away with murder and just pay off crooked cops."

"Hmm, you seem ok human." He gives me a nod of approval as we go into C-Sec and I hand him over to the officer in charge of the shift.

"It's Talon, Milo Talon." I say before he turns to talk with the shift officer.

As they discuss the threats I see Shepard and company including Garrus show up.

Brushing past the shift officer he says "Do I know you human?" He then notices me standing there as well. "You with him?" he says gesturing to me.

"Uh well we are with his partner." She says uncertainly gesturing to Garrus.

"Then you have me to. I can't leave Garrus alone or else he gets into trouble." I say with a smile in Garrus's direction.

"I would recommend him Shepard he is a good fighter and a Biotic. Plus we work good together." He says with a smirk in my direction while adding "Plus he is good for fetching coffee."

"Right. Well then welcome aboard mister…"

"The name's Milo Talon." I say while extending my hand and shaking Shepard's.

They fill me in on the fact that there is a Quarian 'aka Tali' with evidence on Saren that he was responsible for Eden Prime. She was last seen working out a deal with Fist for protection from him and the Shadow Broker but he was going to double cross her to Saren. After they work out a deal with Wrex for Fist's head and he agrees to help as well.

Heading down to Chora's Den we go to walk in when I suddenly jump in front everyone and tell them to stop. "What's wrong?" Ashley says giving me a scowl for stopping her from opening the door.

"Listen?" everyone seems to cock their heads at the same time "When we were here earlier you could hear the music from the transit station. It's never off. Something is wrong."

Wrex nods and say's "Your observant human. I think your right. The music is never off, it's probably a trap. We would have walked right into it."

"Nice catch Talon. Ok people let's arm up at stack up on the door." Shepard says pulling her assault rifle from her back. _Hmm I wonder if she's a soldier she seems to be built and arming herself like one._

"Here, have someone follow behind me. I'll throw up a barrier in front of us and get us a foot hold." I say pulling up my Biotics which I fully remember how to use now.

"You sure you can pull that big of a barrier kid?" Kaiden asks with a smile that looks kinda condescending.

Flaring blue with wisps of smoke coming off me I shield the whole door and smirk at Kaiden. "So who'd like to get a drink with me?" I ask innocently.

"Well I could never turn down a man asking to buy me a drink." Shepard says with a small laugh and coming up beside me. "Ok Wrex, Kaiden and Ashley go left as soon as we clear initial resistance. Garrus follow up with me and Milo, were going right after the others follow us in. "

Once everyone was in position we open the door to a hail of gun fire. All the guards look shocked at the barrier suddenly stopping their shots and we let loose with a barrage of fire. Garrus snipes someone standing on top of the platform were the dancers usually are above the bar. The man was looking at getting a shot off unnoticed when suddenly he was missing everything from the voice box up. Shepard takes out some morons trying to hide behind tables; their bodies are almost taken completely apart as she targets them with very accurate fire with her rifle. I can only fire my pistol as I'm concentrating on the shield with one hand in the air. I still take out the bartender who's been taking pot shots at me.

"Shepard I'm about to lose this shield." I say through clenched teeth.

"We have enough cleared. Hold for one more sec." I nod to this while she whips around and say's "Ok second group go hard left. NOW!" She motions at me and I drop the shield with a huge gasp of air as the strain is taken off me. Whipping out my shotgun I start blasting at a Krogan closing the distance with us. He laughs as I'm too far away to do any damage. So I do what he isn't expecting and I use a biotic charge on him slamming the butt of my shotgun into his head as the burst of speed slams him making him reel back. I pull my gun back and fire point blank into his head. After the charge and all the abuse he took before my shot tears through his shield and tear his head off and all of the back of hump.

While I'm doing this the others are picking off the ranged fighters protecting me while I deal with the close combat. After I take out one more hiding behind a table with another blast of my shotgun everything goes quiet. Looking around at the destruction I see all the guards are dead and we're unscathed. That is until Shepard hits me in the arm barking "That was reckless." As soon as she hits me I become aware of the fact that when I charged the Krogan someone got off a lucky shot through my shields, I now have an inch wide hole through my bicep.

"Fuck that hurts." I jump as she hits me.

"Shit I'm sorry! I didn't see that you were shot." She exclaims immediately scanning my wound and administering medi-gel stopping the bleeding and numbing my arm.

"I'll be fine. I just won't be able to hold my shotgun until my arm is fixed. I can still use my powers and my pistol so let's keep going." I say indicating the direction to Fist's office. With a nod we go through and encounter some dock workers who are being paid to stop us but they quickly change their mind when they see the destruction behind us.

Going in to the office proper, a pair of turrets pops up as Fist ducks behind his desk. Between two overloads one from Garrus one from Kaiden we make short work of them with our combined gunfire.

As Shepard walks up she pulls her pistol on him saying " Where's the Quarian?"

"Not here." He says cowering.

"Let me kill him then he's useless." Wrex says while pointing his shotgun on him.

"Wait I don't know where she is but I know where she will be." He stands up as he says this. "She is meeting an assassin here on the wards. She thinks she is meeting the broker personally."

"In person? Impossible! Even I was hired through a middle man." Wrex exclaims.

"You don't have long. She's in the alley behind Flux's. You'll need to hurry!"

BOOM Wrex blows most of his upper body away with his shotgun.

"What the hell are you doing?" Shepard yells pulling her gun on Wrex now.

"The broker paid me to kill him, I don't leave jobs half done." He says nonchalantly.

"Shepard people have died because of Fist and we don't have time. If we don't hurry that Quarian is dead." I say moving us along. Nodding she turns and we head back out. Coming back into the bar apparently some back-up for the guards showed up but there's a hand full of new ones and we make short work of them.

Garrus and I show the way as we run to the meeting spot. Coming onto the scene we see Tali throw a grenade and dive behind a crate. As Shepard, Wrex and Ashley unleash with weapons fire while Kaiden and I blast them with twin singularities. The fight is over shortly and a slightly scuffed looking Tali pokes her head out from behind the crates.

"Are you ok?" Shepard asks holding a hand out to help Tali up off the floor.

Wiping the dirt off her suit Tali says angrily "Fist, that bastard set me up!"

"Don't worry I took care of him!" Wrex says with an evil smile.

"Are you alright miss?" I ask trying to speed things along.

"It's Tali'Zorah nar Rayya and yes I'm fine. Who are you?" she asks gesturing to everyone.

Shepard turns and introduces everyone in turn leaving herself for last. "I'm Commander Shepard. What did you have that made those assassins come after you?"

"I have evidence against a Specter named Saren. It shows that he was responsible for the attack on Eden Prime. I was trading it to Fist for protection."

"Commander I don't think it's wise to stay here." I say indicating the alleyway "We should bring her to the human embassy, she should be safe there."

"If that's alright Miss Raya would you come with us?" Shepard asks.

"It's just Tali and yes that sounds good."

Leaving the alley we make our way carefully back to the Presidium to make sure we aren't attacked again.

Once we got to Udina's office he was as snide and arrogant as the game made him out to be. Oh and did I mention he was one ugly son of a bitch.

"You're not making my life easy Shepard. Firefights in the wards, an all-out assault on Chora's Den! Do you realize what I…" Finally turning around he sees the huge crowd now gathered in his office. "Who… who are all these 'people' Shepard?"

I hear a bit of contempt when he says people so I'm gonna guess he is a bit xenophobic. Huh you'd think they would screen for that when selecting the Ambassador for our entire race to the galaxy.

"Making your day Ambassador." Shepard says will thinly veiled contempt for the man.

What follows is all the same as the game and I seem to remember dialogue as it happens so whatever happened to my memories seems to allow some insight but not much. I just kinda tune out what's going on. I'm careful not to seem disinterest since I shouldn't know what's gonna be said already and I'm careful that I don't distract from the situation but I eventually find my way to my Omni-Tool. Hmm I have a new message, must have got it during one of our fire fights. 'Don't question what I say! You will remember what you need and all will be revealed in time! This is the only time I'll allow you to question me!'

_Wow friendly little jerk isn't this guy!_ With that thought the meeting comes to an end. Shepard decides to send everyone but the original two crew members to the Normandy as it would seem weird with all of us coming to the council chambers. After giving us directions the others head off except Tali who seems hesitant; she keeps looking at me then out at the Presidium seeming unsure of what to do. Wondering what's going on I walk over and ask "Hey Tali aren't you going to go to the ship?"

"Umm, well you see the last time I was walking around the Presidium alone some Turian C-Sec Officer was racist against me and threatened to arrest me." Seeing as I was obviously with C-Sec she seems reluctant to say anything.

"Were you doing anything illegal?" I ask.

"Keelah, no I wasn't!" She says with a bit of venom.

Holding up my hands I say quickly "I didn't figure you were I just had to ask. Who was the officer? Though I do have an idea."

"Oh, sorry." She says while ringing her hands. "His name was Kuler I think."

"Ah that explains it." I reply shaking my head. "That asshole always was racist against Quarians and Volus. Well I'm not going there directly since I need to pick up my stuff from my apartment but you're welcome to tag along until I head to the ship."

"Oh well only if that's ok. I don't want to be a bother." She seems to become more agitated at the mention of my apartment. Ha she is so funny getting worked up over going to a guy's house.

"It's no prob. I don't mind at all. After you milady." I say with a bow and a long flourish of my arms. She giggles and follows me after we leave the embassy.

Only a few feet out of the entrance I hear behind me "Hey! Talon did you catch that suit-rat trying to get into the embassy?"

Turning around I see it's none other than Kuler himself strutting up like he was actually working. This guy since I had worked at C-Sec had only busted people of the species that he found annoying and was a complete coward. The only time he acted tough is when people seemed intimidated by the uniform.

"No Kuler I was actually giving Miss Tali here an escort." I say acting as serious as possible. "She had an important meeting with the ambassador. I was taking her back to her ship. Seems she was harassed earlier by some bigot. The ambassador wanted to make sure his representative from the Migrant Fleet Conclave wasn't bothered again and soured our relationship with them." The last part I give Tali a slight wink from the corner of my eye. She seems to pick up on what I'm doing and seems to decide to play along.

"Yes some Bosh'tet was being racist and stopped me from making my meeting." She says in an airy tone giving her hand a twirl to seems aloof of the situation.

Kuler seems to pale at all this and starts stammering "Well mmmiss I hope yyyyoou weren't held up tooo badly?" He says while looking at Tali pleadingly.

Tali seems like she is thinking it over then says "Nope. I think he was some moron from C-Sec who is too full of himself. Seemed he was compensating or something."

Trying to cover a grin and a laugh I cough into my hand barely able to contain myself. After a watching Kuler steam a bit at this I finally say "Yes, so Kuler head back to headquarters and let them know we have some moronic officer who is Turian that needs to be taught a lesson on bigotry. I'll check in Chellick later to make sure everything is dealt with." The last part was just a parting jab since he knew I would follow up he would say it to the office. Since everyone there knew that he was the only person like that in the whole department he would be a laughing stock since he knew it would be worse if I had to tell them for him.

Not giving him time to say anything else me and Tali turn on our heels and walk off. After we get behind a corner we both breakdown laughing ourselves silly. "Oh what I wouldn't give to see everyone laugh at him when he has to announce that to the office." I say in between wiping the tears from my eyes.

"Thank you so much Milo that was priceless. But why did you humiliate him like that for me and why did you make up that stuff about me being a representative from the fleet?" Suddenly realising what else said she stands up and cocks her hip looking at me through what I assume is narrowed eyes and asks"How do you know about the Conclave?"

"Hmm? Oh I like learning about other cultures than my own. It's a hobby." putting my hand to the side of my mouth as if to whisper I finish with "Just don't tell Garrus I said that or else I'll never hear the end of it. He thinks it goes against the standard of my species or something and would love to annoy me with it whenever I ask him question about Turians." Looking a little shocked at my answer Tali just nods.

We get to my apartment and I begin to pack while Tali just sits on my couch looking nervous as all hell, ringing her hands again. Just to see what she would do, I call from the pantry to her in an innocent voice "Hey Tali I don't suppose you could to grab my clothes from my dresser and toss them in a bag would ya?" I hear a squeak and what sounds like her slipping off my couch. When I peer out of my room at her she is looking very intently at my book shelf steadfastly ignoring me and pretending she didn't hear. Chuckling I grab the last of my stuff and we head to the ship much to Tali's relief.

Stepping onto the elevator at C-Sec I see Garrus laughing his ass off as he runs to catch up with us. "I just saw what you did to Kuler. It took Chellick five minutes to calm down enough to tell him that he was an idiot and that he was stuck at a desk from on. He then told him that you and I had quit and were leaving the Citadel which caused him to nearly go into shock as he got so mad. This of course caused everyone to laugh at him even more. I got to say it's nice seeing that arrogant ass get whats been coming to him for so long."

Tali starts laughing and I chuckle as the three of us go up the docking bay. Stepping off the elevator my breath is taken away as I see the Normandy for the first time. It's gorgeous, way better in real life than the game. Tali stares mute shock, even Garrus seems impressed. The sight is spoiled only by Udina standing there scowling.

"Well are you gonna stand here all day or get aboard?"

All three of us jump at the sound of Shepard talking to us. She appears to have come up on the elevator after us and we were so enthralled by the ship that we didn't hear her come up behind us.

"Um ya we were just about to do that." We mumble and start speed walking to the airlock. Looking over my shoulder I catch Shepard giving us a grin.

After decontamination we hear the door hiss as it open and I wonder what is in store for us as everything was unknown to me now. _Well this ought to interesting at least. _With that thought I walk onto the bridge and into the unknown.


	6. Learning, Not Always a Bad Thing

Chapter 6

Learning, Not Always A Bad Thing

After boarding the Normandy I take in the bridge, it's slightly bigger in real life and better lit then the game portrayed. _Holy crap the galaxy map looks so awesome! _Looking left I see Joker sitting with his back turned to us, looking right I see Pressly walking up to us. "Welcome to the Normandy. I'm the Navigator Charles Pressly." He seems to only be looking at me as he says this. "Shepard told me to expect all of you. If you would like I can give you a tour of the ship."

"I think that would be wonderful. Thank you very much. I'm Tali by the way." Tali says extending her hand in greeting. Pressly takes it slowly and give gives it a brief shake. Garrus introduces himself and shakes his hand as well then I follow. Pressly seems genuinely happy for me to be aboard, not so much with the others.

"Well this is the CIC or Combat Information Center, at the front is our helm. Our pilot is Jeff Moreau though he prefers the nick name Joker. Behind the star map is the conference and communication room." Walking down the length of the ship as he talks he points out things of interest. Going down the stairs we walk out into the mess area I see it's much larger than shown in the game. There is an actual kitchen area were Kaiden stands in the game. Down the hall of sleeper pods there is a door that Pressly says goes into a rec room. On the side were the stairs are there are actual bedrooms, reserved apparently for ground team specialists. He tells us we each have our own and that the name plate outside of the room will tell us which is which. The rest of this floor is the same with the med-bay and Shepard's room being in the same place. He tells us Doctor Chakwas' name. We then take the elevator down _FYI it is actually that slow in real life. FML!_ We go into the launch bay and see the Mako and armory is much the same as I remember. Garrus gits a glint in his eye when he spies the ground vehicle, I promptly drag him away from it so that we don't lose him to working on it immediately.

We are then shown engineering which causes Tali to stop dead making me bump into her causing her to squeak in surprise. "Sorry Milo." She says embarrassment filling her voice.

"Geez Tali stop worrying about apologising to me all the time." I respond giving her a grin. Pressley just looks at us with a confused look at our familiarity. At this point he excuses himself and the others abandon me as well; Tali going to investigate the drive core and Garrus the Mako. Suddenly Shepard came over the loud speaker giving her speech and damn it sounded awesome, feeling pumped I look around wondering what to do. Realising that I still have a hole in my arm I decide to make my way up to the med-bay. Walking in I see Doctor Chakwas at her desk typing. Hearing the door she looks up at me.

"Hello Doctor Chakwas, I'm Milo Talon a new member of the crew."

Nodding she replies "Yes, I know I just the medical profiles on all the new crew members. I recognised you from your profile. So what brings you to my med-bay?"

Sitting on a bed I indicate my medi-gel covered arm. FYI Let me say again how awesome medi-gel is! I can't feel any pain at all and almost forgot about the wound entirely. "I took a hit when my shields went down when we stormed Chora's Den. Hit me in-between my plates."

"Hmm, it's not bad I think the gel did most of my work. It's clean and healing already." She proceeded to sew up the wound with a laser suture and told me "Try to not make it a habit of coming into my med-bay. I would prefer to not have to put you back together."

Nodding my ascent and saying good-bye I leave to get rid of my armor down in the armory. Going into the cargo bay I take off my armor put it away in a locker with my name already on it. The name plates are all digitalised by the way. You enter the name with you Omni-Tool.

Finishing putting my stuff away I realize Ashley was standing behind me. "You put away your gear in the same way a marine would. Did you serve?" She asks me giving me an appraising look now that I wasn't in my C-Sec armor.

"I was with a Biotic Commando unit when we first started using Biotics in the military. I left after I couldn't stand the abuse the rest of the military was giving us." She gives me a questioning look. "You need to remember this was when it was all new to us. Biotics were freaks, nobody liked us. They thought we could read minds and bull."

"Oh I didn't realize that happened." She says finally understanding. "Well I don't think you're a freak. At least not for your Biotics." She says nudging me in the ribs good naturally. "Maybe for hanging out with the Turian."

_Oh so close to making me like you there Ash._ Scowling at her remark I just walk away leaving her looking shocked not understanding what happened. Storming up to the mess hall I look for my room to go and vent. Storming out of the elevator I bowl Shepard over. "Oof." She says when I fall on her. "The hell Talon, usually you need to take me to dinner and a movie first." She says as I lift my head off the floor by her shoulder.

"Sorry I'm just a very forward kinda guy." I say as I prop my head up on my hand setting my elbow on the ground. Giving her my biggest grin.

"Hmmm nice." She says throwing a hand around my waist totally screwing with me. Then she promptly tossed me off her using my belt.

"Sad to say that's not the worst rejection I've had." Rolling over to watch her stand up. As she turned around and watched me I gave her my biggest shit eater grin I could muster.

Laughing she grabs my hand and pulls me up. "You'll have to tell me your worst sometime. So what's got you in a huff?" She says indicating the elevator that I had just stormed out of.

Not wanting to get anyone into trouble I simply said "Umm nothing just got message that ticked me off is all."

Looking a little skeptical she just shrugs and says "Ok. Let me know if you need help with anything."

"Thanks Shepard. I'll keep that in mind. So whatcha doin?" I ask trying to move the subject away from my problems. But lo and behold the elevator opens and Ashley walks out looking stunned at us and a little worried.

"Hey Milo can I talk to you?" Ash asks me.

Shepard see's the annoyed look I get when she says that but stays silent. "I guess so. Were you wanna talk?" I respond not looking her in the face.

"Ya let's talk in my room." She grabs my arm and pulls me to her room as I wave goodbye to Shepard.

Entering her room I look around and see that she doesn't have much for decoration except a picture of her family and some actual books which are kinda rare now a days. Walking over to them I read off the titles to myself. She has a lot of epic ballads and most works of Alfred Tennyson.

She clears her throat behind me and I say without turning around "So what do you want?"

"I wanted to apologise for what I said. I was being racist and I'm not actually racist I just have a few problems with Turians. I want to get past it and was wondering if you would help me?"

"You realize you still haven't apologised right?" I say turning and giving a small smile.

Blushing she looks down and mumbles "I'm sorry."

"It's ok. If you want to get past it why don't you hang out with Garrus and me sometime? We tend to play skillian five poker every week why don't you join us?"

"Ya that's sounds good. So if you don't mind me asking how did you and Garrus start out?"

"He was my trainer at C-Sec then after we became partners. We've worked for years together now and we just became friends." Shrugging my shoulders I add "I've always gotten along with aliens though I was raised to never judge and keep an open mind."

Looking thoughtful Ash ponders a moment then asks "So I noticed you checking my books. You read a lot?"

"Hmm?" I'm bad for books I get easily distracted and started reading the titles again. "Oh sorry; ya I'm big on books. I like old poetry and novels as well. I have some actual paper books left myself from some of my favorite authors." Shaking myself from my thoughts I turn and say "Well I'm going to find a replacement for my under suit since I gained new hole in it from that fight."

"Ok well let's talk again later." She says giving me smile.

Nodding I make my way back out to the armoury to talk to the requisitions officer in the cargo hold. That jackass actually does make everyone pay for everything even alliance standard issue. Jackass! Good thing I have plenty in my account from working at C-Sec. Getting my new under suit stored I turn around to have Shepard scare the crap out of me as she was standing behind me this entire time. Unlike Ashley she is very, very sneaky. "Holy crap! You almost made me need another visit to the med bay to replace the bones than just about jumped out of me." I say after I do a rather un-graceful jump.

Trying to cover a smile she says "Sorry thought you heard me."

"Don't worry he is just incredibly easy to scare when he isn't in combat. He's about as observant as a door knob. Scared him one time when he even acknowledged that I was there and then forgot immediately." Garrus shouts from somewhere under the Mako.

_Damn his Turian hearing! _"Oi! Beaky, shut it before I tell them about the Turian cross dresser at Chora's!" This earns a crash as he apparently jerked his head up right into the undercarriage and a stream of curses follows'. It did make him shut up though. Turning back to Shepard who is in stiches by this point. "So Commander what can I do for you? Need me to push ya down again?" I say wiggling my eyebrows at her. Now I think she's considering killing me but can't stop laughing long enough to do it.

"Thanks but I told you you'll need to buy me dinner next time." She says finally gaining control of herself. "I'm going around getting to know my crew. Mind talking for a bit?"

Nodding I move and sit on a crate "Shoot."

She proceeded to ask me about my training and time in C-Sec seeming to be working on the basic's first and not wanting to get to personal yet. "So your biotics seemed pretty powerful, are you an Adept?"

"Well yes but I try to be proficient with weapons as well and I've learned some vanguard moves as well hence my charge today."

Nodding she seemed to be taking in everything I'd said. Then giving me a look she asked me about my family. Not having much to say as everyone was dead in this time and from my time as well. "Well did you leave anyone special behind when we left?" She seemed rather coy about asking me this.

"No. I was married but my wife was killed six years ago back on Earth."

"Oh I'm sorry I didn't know." She apologises looking rather embarrassed.

Waving it off I simply say "Don't worry it was a long time ago. I'm fine. What about you? Got anyone waiting?"

Turning a shade of red to match her hair she says "No I'm too busy with the Alliance. Most guys don't like when you need to leave every few weeks for extended periods of time." She says the last bit with a bit of venom. Raising an eyebrow in question she says "I had a steady boyfriend but one time when I came home on leave I caught him cheating on me."

"The guy must have been cracked to have cheated on someone like you." I say getting myself another blush out of her.

"Well thanks. I umm appreciate knowing someone thinks so." She says looking very intently at her shoes.

"No worries I always did like red heads." I say giving her a wink. She actually squeaked at this and proceeded to beat a quick retreat saying she needed to talk to everyone else as well.

Walking hastily away she stops and turns around saying "Oh ya I was going to tell you were going to be looking for an Asari by the name of Liara, she's Saren's lieutenant's daughter." Since I wasn't there at the council meeting she gives me a run down on Benezia and the fact that she was the second voice of Tali's recording.

She then goes over to Wrex and tries to get him to say more than three words but seems to just annoy him when she starts talking about the genophage. Deciding not to get into this discussion just yet I leave the cargo bay for my room.

_So were going to get Liara. This should be interesting._


	7. A Little Filler

**Sorry about the long wait folks I've been out of touch with civilisation let alone my editor or fact checker and I had a bit of writers block so as the title says this is just a bit of filler. I'm going to be home a little more so I should get back to updating quicker. Hope you guys dont mind this chapter, not my best work but I hope to hit the next chapter with a bit more gusto.**

Chapter 7

A little filler

Travelling to the Artemis Tau sector only took a day but we had to stop and scan most planets in each system since we had nothing to go off of except that Liara was excavating in the sector and nothing else. Spending time on the ship is pretty boring as I don't have any official duties. I tended to go down to cargo bay and workout as there was weights and equipment behind the Mako. I also worked on my Biotics by moving things around and practicing my precision. Wrex tended to stare at me as I used my Biotics like he was analyzing me as an opponent. Ashley helped me learn more about working on my weapons.

Getting super bored I tended to hang around whoever wasn't on shift, usually Garrus but I started to hang out with Ash as well and we started playing poker with Garrus. One night when we were playing down in the cargo bay Shepard happened to come down and find us playing. "Hey since when do you guys play Skillian Five?" She asked us as we froze thinking we might have gotten in trouble.

"Uh, were sorry?" I say uncertain of what I should say.

"Calm down you aren't in trouble, I'm just wondering why you didn't invite me."

"You want us to deal you in?" I ask.

"Sure why not. Just be nice I haven't played in a long time so go easy on me."

Thinking I'd heard about something like this I decide I might not be so cautious with her. After an hour Shepard had taken us all for everything but our clothes and seemed pretty intent on taking them as well. Getting frustrated as I'm usually a pretty good poker player I get up to leave. "Well now that you have reduced me to an out of work cop without any savings I think I better leave before you add nudity to my list of recent accomplishments."

Getting a laugh from most everyone except Shepard; who just looked at me up and down and blushed said "Well we could always change to strip poker then to make it fair." I stop so quickly I slip and fall on my ass much to everyone's amusement.

"You're kidding right? I mean I'm not sure what regs would say but I'm pretty sure that's not allowed." I splutter from my seat on the cold floor.

Everyone keeps laughing apparently not noticing Shepard's embarrassment as they are too intent on my stupidity on the floor. "Maybe I'll need to get everyone drunk before we try that one." Shepard says recovering quickly.

Trying to save face I bolt for the elevator trying to pound the button to make it go quicker. Making my way into my room I sit at my desk in the corner flustered and not sure what to do with myself. I strip off my shirt and leave just my fatigue pants on as the ship seemed to run the internal a little hot. Finding a distraction on the extranet I start reading a book off my omni-tool when I hear a knock at my door. Getting up I go to the door and open it to find an extremely mortified Shepard standing there blushing. "What's up?" I ask.

"Uh...um you" Not comprehending a word she is saying she simply indicates my shirtless state.

"Oh sorry." I grab a sleeveless shirt and throw it on.

Seeming slightly less terrified she walks in and I notice she has a bottle in her hand. "I wanted to apologise I didn't mean to embarrass you Milo."

Slightly taken a back I wave my hands like a moron saying "Ah don't worry about it I just get flustered easily when it comes to good looking women saying things like that." Suddenly realizing what I just said I get incredibly red in the face as Shepard lets out a small laugh as she also gets red "Uh I mean to say that… Ah hell I got nothing Shepard, your just really attractive and I'll look more like an idiot if I saying anything else."

Sitting on my bed she just laughs at me and says "Don't worry I appreciate someone who actually compliments me like that rather than just hearing them whisper 'She has a great ass' as I walk by." She says the last bit with a bit of venom in her voice.

"Well if you like I could compliment your ass but I try to wait until you're out of earshot first." I say in a joking tone trying to lighten her mood.

Giving me a small smile she says "No that's alright but at least I know where your looking now so maybe I'll just put you on point from now on so you aren't distracted by me out front."

Laughing at her joke she seems happier and starts laughing as well. "Well I don't think you came to just hear me act like an idiot so what's up Shep?"

Waving the bottle to me she says "Figured I'd share this rum with you as an apology. It's pretty old, turn of the century from the Dominican."

"Well damn Shep you sure know how to twist my arm. I love rum especially dark rum, I've even had some from the Dominican from around that year as well it's excellent."

"Great then grab some cups and lets break this sucker open."

Grabbing some real crystal sipping cups I keep for this sort of thing I make my way over to sit beside Shepard on my bed. As she starts the rum into my cup I suddenly look at her with suspicion and say "Wait you aren't trying to get me to play strip poker now that were drinking are you?"

Looking thoughtful for a moment I go red and she starts laughing "No just a coincidence."

"Ok then pour away my captain." Sipping my drink I admire how smooth it goes down. Shepard takes a drink but seems to be studying me. "What? You still thinking about me with my shirt off?" I say teasingly.

"Actually I was wondering about your tattoo's. What does this one mean?" She says pointing at my right arm were my claddagh was.

Getting quiet for a second I point at design saying "Well this is called a claddagh. It's an old Irish symbol. It's made of hands, a heart and a crown. The hands represent friendship, the heart love and the crown loyalty."

"Wow. I just thought it was something random, that's really cool. Why did you get it?"

I look at my cup in my hands and take a minute before I reply "It was on mine and my wife's wedding rings. I'm Irish and she liked the design so much we had rings made like it. After we got married I had it put on my arm."

Looking a little ashamed she says "I'm sorry I didn't mean to bring up bad memories. I saw in your file what happened to her."

Waving it off I say "No it's alright. Garrus always says I need to talk about it sometimes. Says it's not healthy to keep it bottled up inside."

Trying to change the mood she asks about the fact that I have a chain and Irish knot attached to the top of the tattoo and asks me about it. Getting up I make her squeak as I take off my shirt to show her that it runs across the top of my back all the way to my left arm were I have an emblem of crossed daggers over a rose inside a badge. "It's supposed to be like an old chain that people wore a long time ago. The left arm is just something from the old cover of a band that I really like." After she asked about all my other tattoo's on my body somehow making me keep my shirt off.

We quickly empty the bottle and once we started falling over and into each other we realized that we were drunk and decide to call it a night. Getting up she suddenly falls over right on top of me. Giggling she lifts her head up above mine and looks into my eyes. _Damn she has beautiful bright emerald green eyes. _Gulping I fidget a bit as she seems to be interrogating me through my eyes in total silence. Looking like she is contemplating what to do I see her eyes kinda roll back in her head. _Oh crap! _"Crack!" Her head nails me on mine and we both go out like lights.

Waking up in the morning the first thing I notice is a massive headache. Groaning I try to rise up then realize that I'm not on my bed and something heavier than a blanket is on top of me. _Gah what the hell! _Shepard is passed out on top of me snoring lazily and clinging to me like her life depends on it. _Bahahaha she looks to cute. _ She is curled up into me in the fetal position and seems content to sleep the day away. Clearing my throat I bring her to consciousness with a start. "Bah what the hell?" She yelps falling off me sideways as I start laughing hysterically.

"You passed out last night and nailed me in the head with your own and knocked me out. At least that's what I think happened. You did somehow manage to get my shirt off though." Seeing her go six shades of red made me break down into more hysterics.

"Oh cram it you!" She says throwing my shirt at me while tears roll down my face as she waits for me.

Putting on my shirt I compare notes on what happened the night before confirming that we both recall nothing else awkward happening. Satisfied she thanked for drinking with her and beat a hasty retreat trying to avoid people seeing her leave my quarters.

After puttering around my room I go out for breakfast and am just sitting down to eat when I hear this over the intercom "All specialist and ground team members report to the comm room. We found the doctor and are going in for extraction." Jamming a piece of toast down my throat. _Well this should be fun._


	8. Finding the Good Doctor

**Sorry for the super long delay folks. I have been crazy busy with life and work. I hope to get back to writing here quickly but I will be away in 2 weeks for San Diego Comic-con so I will be a little indisposed but will endeavor to write a bit after geeking out a con and with out further ado.**

Chapter 8

Finding the Good Doctor

Entering the briefing room I see that I'm the last person to arrive. Sitting down next to Garrus Shepard gives me a nod and starts her briefing. "We have received information pointing to doctor T'Soni being on this planet" she waves at a screen showing a planet "Therum, she is scheduled with the local government to be doing excavations here for a while. The nearest landing site is here several kilometers away. We will be dropping in the Mako and making our way to her dig site. I'll be taking Wrex,Garrus and Milo for this mission."

_Huh I guess she doesn't stick to the three person squad from the game, might make my chances of surviving a little better._

"We start the operation in 45 minutes. I want everyone prepped and ready in the Mako as soon as possible. Dismissed."

As Shepard is leaving the room I run up beside her and walk with her to the elevator. "So commander I'm hurt you didn't even give me a call after last night." I say to her with as straight a face as I can manage. "It's not every day I get used as a pillow then abandoned without even a call."

Keeping her face straight she turns to me and says "Well you were a lumpy pillow so I decided to not use you again."

Leaning against the elevator wall I give her a look of mock hurt "So you were just using me for my body? I'll never live this down now. The 'one night' pillow that's what people will call me."

"Hahahahaha, well I could start calling you lumpy pillow or just lumpy if you like?"

Making a face I say with seriousness "Gah, please don't Garrus would have a field day with that."

"Aww I always wanted a big cuddle pillow that I could throw around though."

"Oh, so you do want to use me as a pillow again? Well I might consent to the name but only if were sleeping together… wait that didn't come out right."

Going bright red the elevator chooses this moment to reach the cargo bay. Getting out I head to my locker trying to hide my face. Looking back I see Shepard equally red and heading to put her armor on as well.

"Hey why are you and Shepard both the colour of tomatoes?" Garrus asks as he walks up beside me to grab his weapons.

"Uh, well I kinda put my foot in my mouth and said something stupid."

"Well this is you so I kinda figured that part out already. I mean what exactly did you say." I tell Garrus everything that had happened and by the end he is having trouble breathing from laughing so hard.

"Hey shut up beaky I'm terrible when I talk to women you know that."

"Well yes but that is just too damn funny. You proposed sleeping with her before you even asked her on a date. That's a new speed for moving to fast."

Punching him in the arm I say "Shut up it isn't like I was going to ask her out I was just making a joke and it spiraled way out of control and crashed and burned leaving people and wreckage strewn everywhere. I'm like a natural disaster when it comes to women. Give me a fire fight and I'm good but put me in a room with a beautiful women and I'm a socially inept moron."

Nodding his agreement Garrus starts for the Mako which Wrex and Shepard are just getting into. "Okay I want Garrus on power control, Milo up front working the turret." We all nod understanding and hop into the tank. Wondering why I would be put on the turret with less combat experience than the others I hop in and realize the answer. The Mako looks fairly large but the interior is much smaller as the armor plating is quite thick with tech for the shields also on the inside. Garrus would need to run the shields as he has tech expertise while I don't and Wrex is too big to sit in either seat.

"So I've never used one of these any advice?" I say dropping into my seat next to Shepard while strapping myself in at the same time.

"You ever play any video games?" She asks.

Laughing at the irony of the question in my head I simply respond "Ya, some."

"Well hit the on button and the controls and read out will work like almost any video game controller since the 20th century."

"Hmm… sweet!" Hitting the button turns on smaller screen in front of me with the same view as outside the window but I can use a zoom and the trigger are fairly self-explanatory as they have labels on them.

Garrus chuckles at me as he knows quite well that I love video games since I made him play tons of them with me back on the Citadel. Hearing a whooshing noise I look up to see the bay doors open in front of us. _Oh crap! I forgot about this part! _(Author's note: I'm deathly afraid of heights at the best of times, therefore me free falling from orbit is a thought that makes me want to puke.)

"Mako you are go for launch in 10, 9, 8" Joker drones through our headsets.

"Might be a bad time to mention this but I'm scared of heights." I say with as little trembling as I can manage.

"6, 5,"

"Nothing to worry about once you start the fall you should be fine." Shepard says while patting me on the shoulder.

"2, 1, Launch."

"VROOM" we shoot off the ramp and begin free falling.

"IT"S NOT THE FALLING THAT I'M SCARED WILL KILL ME IT'S THE SUDDEN STOP AT THE END!" I scream to be heard over the rushing noise of air and fire on our hull.

Wrex starts laughing hysterically at me right until we hit the ground. "CRASH" We screech to a halt. "While I'm not afraid I respect his logic for his fear more than someone who's just afraid of falling for falling's sake.

All three of us turn and look at Wrex as if he suddenly grew two more heads.

"What? He has a point. Cant a Krogan appreciate someone's fear?" He says the last bit with a feral smile.

"Now that last part sounds more Krogan." Garrus says turning back to his screen.

"Commander we're getting some strange readings, really strange like off the damn charts. It's coming from a dig site several clicks from your location."

"Send us the coordinates Joker and remain on stand-by." Shepard says as she finishes her last checks to make sure the tank wasn't damaged in the drop.

"Roger that commander."

"Ok then let's get going." Shepard says as she suddenly punches the gas.

_Crap I remember that in the game the Mako drove like shit, I wonder if its cause the vehicle is terrible or if Shepard can't drive?_

"CRUNCH" as we drive along the lines of lava it actually feels like Shepard is deliberately hitting every single thing in the way on purpose.

"Christ Shepard I'm not going to have any spine left by the time you get us to the dig site!" I say as I bounce all over the damn place hitting my helmet off the roof as I desperately try to tighten my harness to compensate.

"What are you talking about?" she asks giving me an angelic smile which doesn't fool me one bit.

"We have Geth up ahead!" Garrus barks from behind Shepard.

Grabbing the controls I bring the turret to around thanking whoever designed the turrets adapter to counter for when the tank was moving. This thing bounced around like a small car driving over full size logs with broken shocks. I was pretty sure my teeth were going to rattle out of my freaking head.

"Where the hell did you get your license Shepard the back of a cereal box?" I stutter as I blast a missile into center mass of the last group of Geth ground troopers.

Without missing a beat while swerving hard to avoid a rocket she responded "Nah they were giving them out for free if you bought two pieces of furniture when I was furnishing my apartment. Got a free TV as well."

She said it so seriously I just gaped at her wondering if she was actually telling me the truth. A sudden hard turn around a lava pit dinged my head off the wall bringing my focus back to the road and how much Shepard seemed to be just swerving for no reason.

Coming up to a canyon we had to swerve hard and hit the rocket jumpers to avoid a rocket from a turret sitting in the middle of the way. Swinging the turret around I pound the thing as fast as I since we don't exactly have much room to maneuver. With an explosion the target is gone but we suddenly see four rockets streaking towards us. "Turrets surrounding the main gate I count four from here. No way we can avoid all the rockets with this narrow canyon." I yell down from my spot in the turret.

"Off to the right there I see what looks like a path around… I'm going for it. It's going to get bumpy so hold on." Shepard says while swerving us hard since we had all of five seconds to make decision with more rockets streaking towards us. Going up over the hill we see another turret that immediately starts firing at us and causes Shepard to slam into reverse as I start firing at the turret. Luckily the rockets are just as slow in life as in the game. Shepard decides to jump over the hill and let me fire off a shot then reverse making me slam my head on the display every time.

The turrets explode after a few shots and we move forward slowly. "Dammit Shepard you might have given me a concussion slamming my head every time you moved us there."

"Shut up it wasn't that bad!"

"Shepard we got Geth ground units advancing on us." I yell cutting her off from any further retort while swinging the cannon around and pegging a group hiding around a crate. Firing a shot into the side of the Geth's cover I find that the box was loaded with something caustic as it explodes with enough force to rock us sideways.

"Holy crap what the hell was in there?" Shepard yelps as she swerves over the last of the Geth trying to avoid flying crate pieces. In the back I can hear Wrex laughing maniacally. Pulling up to the far gate she throws the Mako into park. "Alright the gate is shut and there's a building on both side and it seems most likely that the controls would be inside one of them. Garrus I want you to cover us from the Mako and make sure no one sneaks up on us. The rest of us will split up and take separate buidings just go slow and call for back up if anything happens."

With that she jumps down and starts heading towards the building beside the entrance gate, Wrex starts towards the gate on the right of the exit gate so I start heading up to the last one.

Edging to the corner I pull a mirror out of my pocket and stick it around the corner to check the area. There are a couple of tall fuel tanks with a path going around the side of the far end of them. Replacing the mirror I unstrap my shotgun and move up slowly all the while priming my biotics just in case. Suddenly I hear the telltale whirr of a Geth's flashlight head moving. Stopping I envelope myself with a biotic barrier. "I hear Geth in this building, not sure how many. Will report in a moment." I whisper into my comm.

"I got the one here. I'm taking it out." Shepard reports.

From distance I hear the sound of Shepard's Avenger belting out mixed with the sound of Geth pulse rifle noise. Shepard's soon drowns out the second. Shaking my head and moving my attention back to my own Geth problems. Aiming my Avenger down to the end of the hall I start moving towards the corner when something catches my eye. A shimmer in the air right in the corner. Stopping I start aiming where I thought I saw the movement in the air. As if on cue I hear the noise of a Geth around the corner. I go to move again and I see the same distortion in the air. Sudden realisation hits me as a Geth trooper comes around the corner firing at me. I quickly pull up my biotics and hit the trooper with a throw just as a Hunter decloaks and fires its plasma shotgun at me. Taking a slight hit as I roll to the side I close the distance with him running under his arm as he swings his shotgun at me. Quickly I pull up more dark energy as I put my hand into some of the wires in its torso. I use a massive push directed everywhere to blow the Hunter apart. As the top half falls it keeps moving and still has its weapon and opens fire again. Taking the full hit this time I see my shield meter fall to zero. Dashing over I put my rifle to its eye and pull the trigger. The eye makes a fizzing noise as it explodes in sparks scorching my leg armor but causing no damage.

"BAM" Sudden pain envelopes my left side. I spin from the impact seeing the trooper I threw and apparently forgot about aiming its pistol at me. As I hit the floor it walks over to me and puts the gun to my head. I close my eyes not wanting to watch. "Blam, blam,blam."

_'Wait… I'm not dead?'_ Opening my eyes the geth falls to the floor minus its head and arm. Looking up I see Shepard running towards me.

"Milo are you ok?"

Opening my mouth all I can do is cough and suddenly I realize I'm coughing blood. _'Shit this isn't good!' _

Looking down as Shepard start addressing my wound I see that the shot went clean in between the plates of my armor when my shields went down and look like they punctured my lung. She cuts some of my undermesh off starts applying medi-gel too my chest the slowly rolls me over and does the same to the other side. "This is all I can do for now without a doctor but my scans are showing it only grazed your lung so you should be fine as long as you don't overdo it. Of course my Omni-tool isn't meant for this but it should be good enough until we can get you to Doctor Chakwas. We can't afford to break away from this mission so you will need to stay in the Mako."

Wheezing but starting to feel slightly better but still like I was running on one lung I look at her and say "Hell no I'll follow and give Biotic support but stay behind cover. I won't push it and if I fall behind I'll just make my way back to the tank."

Looking impressed Shepard just nods and responds with "Just make sure you don't try to run or you could tear your lung open." Helping me to my feet she pulls my arm around her shoulder and helps me to the Mako since the Medi-gel is still working on my body.

Getting into the tank Garrus checks that I'll live and berates me a bit before taking over the turret position.

Lying on the floor I look up and see Wrex looking at me inches from my face, gulping I sat "What's up Wrex besides your face from me?"

Snorting in amusement he looks at my wound and says "Well at least you will have a good scar to impress the women of your species with. Although I'm told it mainly works with Krogan female."

I start laughing and immediately regret it as I spit up some more blood. Shepard looks back and tells us both to stop or I'll damage myself more and we both just lapse into silence.

After one hell of a bumpy ride Shepard announces we have hit a road block and must continue on foot. Getting out we see that there is only a small passage through some rocks with more lava to the left and a cliff to the right. Following the others at a slightly slower pace, they begin moving through the choke point that I realize would be perfect for an ambush. I keep back as I'm not going to be running to cover any time soon so better to stay further back so that I have more time to hobble to cover. As we crest a hill we are met with an absurd amount of gun fire which catches the others by surprise since it seems to be long range. I quickly throw up a barrier so we can at least make it to the rocksin front of us. Thankfully they aren't far since I don't have much juice left in me. As Garrus and Shepard start picking off the snipers and keeping them occupied some troopers and a rocket trooper decide to move up to hit us while two of us are distracted. Unfortunately for them Wrex is pissed off about having to duck from fire and charges them since the snipers are now busy. Looking into my pouch I pull out an energy drink and energy bar and start chowing down quickly to give myself some more power for using my Biotics.

This takes all of 15 seconds as a Biotic that is low on energy can consume a meal in less than a normal person takes to have drink. I look up and see that Wrex left a swath of broken parts and pieces of Geth from our hill down a gulley and up into the rise on the far side a good 350 yards away. _How the hell did he do that so quickly?"_ Seeing the others staring to move up I follow along. On the other side and up the hill we get to a small facility for what I'm not sure. Suddenly I start getting that feeling of deja-vu as we approach the entrance. Suddenly it snaps into my head as I grab Garrus by the shoulder and scream "GET DOWN!" we all dive to the side as suddenly a drop ship fly's over us dropping several troopers and an armature. We all move for cover behind some machinery as the enemy opens up on us.

"Well shit!" Wrex says looking around the corner "Even I don't want to charge that!"

Not sure what to do we just take down the foot soldiers but can keep enough fire on the armature to do any good. Suddenly I have an idea as I watch how it moves. "Shepard!" I yell to get her attention. She quickly comes over. "Take Wrex and circle around this machinery and me and Garrus will draw its fire until you are in place then unload on it while we stop and when it turns to fight you we switch again. It's so slow it won't be able to get us and we can keep fire up longer." Nodding she signals Wrex and they both go dashing off too our left. Leaning out I throw another Warp at it as Garrus fires from the opposite. We both duck as it fires another blast of energy at us ripping even more of our tattered cover to pieces. "BOOM, BOOM, BOOM." Looking around I see it turn as Wrex unloads his shotgun and Shepard does the same. Then we the machine gets about three quarters of the way turned the duck behind cover and me and Garrus start our weapon biotic combo up again forcing to turn and try to deal with us. We do this for about three minutes before it's shields short out and ne of use hits something vital bringing it down.

We all move past the Armature's corpse and to the entrance. "Good thinking there Milo it wasn't able to comprehend that it needed to deal with one of us first." Shepard says with a small pat on the shoulder. Wrex gives me a grunt of approval as he passes.

"Nice thinking partner," Garrus says with approval "for once the plan doesn't call for you to catch a grenade in the face." And he's back to being an ass. Pulling a bit of energy biotic I poke him in the side letting the energy zap him as if he grabbed a power outlet. "Oww dammit I keep forgetting to make my comments about you from further away."

Snickering I follow them down the mine shaft. As we got to the end I see Shepard up front put her fist up for us to stop. She motions Garrus forward and the two sneak to the edge of the rail. Both taking a breath almost at the same time they both fire. "Clear" Garrus says after sweeping around to check for more baddies.

Moving down in front of the ruins on a catwalk we are suddenly ambushed by two drones. We all fire at the same time and they both explode without much effort. We all look at each other and shrug mutually thinking those were way too easy to kill.

Hopping into the elevator which seems to be the only thing in the tunnel besides the ruins which all the entrances seem sealed by a barrier. Going down the silence is too much for me so I say in complete deadpan "Man they're so cheap they don't even have bad elevator music and this service is terrible I think I'm going to use a different Geth mining service next time."

Shepard snickers Garrus laughs a bit and Wrex just looks at me weirdly. Getting to the bottom seems to take forever and the elevator doesn't seem to go very fast a trait I'm noticing seems to be kinda universal, a fact that I put to the question to my companions since we all are getting quite bored.

"I'm not sure why all elevators now a days all go so slow, I tried to look it up once on the Extra-Net once but it almost seemed like someone was purposely deleting info on it." Shepard says.

After a bit more conversation we finally get to the bottom. Stepping out we hear "Hello? Is anyone there? I'm trapped!"

Jumping down we see Liara floating in mid-air. They don't show in the game what a mess she is. She looks like she has been there for a few days and is shall we say not very clean. She also looks very weak and tired.

"Doctor T'Soni I presume." Shepard says walking up.

"Yes. Please you have to help me!"

"How did you get trapped and how do we get to you?"

"I was running from the Geth and turned on these facilities defenses. But I must have pressed something I shouldn't have because this stasis field trapped me. I've been here for two days already, you need to help me!"

"Don't worry doctor we will get you out. First I need to ask do you know what your mother is doing with Saren?"

"My mother? I haven't spoken to her in years!"

Shepard looks thoughtful before replying "Very well we will be back once we find a way around the field."

"Thank you!"

With that we start down some more scaffolding just as a few more Geth show up but there is only a few and we make short work of them. Walking by a laser drill I stop and start looking at the controls as the others check and clear the cave.

Walking back over to me Shepard watches as I fiddle with some of the circuitry. "Is it salvageable?"

Not responding I look at my Omni-Tool and start using it as a solder gun. After a couple of quick fixes the laser suddenly just blasts the wall under where Liara is trapped.

Staring flabbergasted all I can say is "Umm… woops?"

Garrus walks over and looks at the diagram I looked up to fix he points at the circuit I fixed last. "You should have fixed this first to stop it from firing automatically." He just shakes his head and says "Well at least you didn't blow up a hanger this time."

"You blew up a hanger?" Wrex asks with a bit of interest.

"I'd rather talk about when I don't feel like my lung is going to fall out if it's all the same." I state while glaring daggers at Garrus.

"You better I wanna know details!" Shepard says with a bit of glee in her eyes.

"Well I would like to thank for choosing Milo mining services. Making Geth look bad at mining since 10 minutes ago." Shepard smirks and Garrus shakes his head, Wrex just ignores me at this point.

Walking down to the hole we created we see that the field was disrupted or destroyed by the laser. Walking to the center of the tower we find what looks like an elevator and a control panel. We play with the controls which are all in glyphs which I assume are Prothean, we manage to get the elevator moving up.

The others walk over to Liara when the elevator stops. Not feeling well and breathing badly I just wait in the center. The others free Liara just as the whole facility starts shaking. "The facility wasn't stable to begin with when you activated the laser you must have triggered a seismic event!" Liara yells over the shaking of the earth.

Not wasting any time everyone runs back to me as I hit the button to take us to the top as Shepard yells for joker to meet us at the entrance. Wrex just says "If we die from this I'll kill him!"

As we get to the top we go to run when suddenly the entrance is filled with Geth and a Krogan battlemaster who says "Give us the Asari, or not that would be more fun."

Shepard looks at him like he is an idiot "I think we will keep her thanks."

Motioning to me to stay back they charge the Geth, Wrex demolishing three of the six Geth within a minute with Shepard and Garrus in a firefight with the rest. Suddenly I realize the Krogan is missing. Looking around I spot him trying to take Liara. I pull my pistol as I can't hold my rifle. He just looks pissed as I try maneuver in front of Liara who seems to have fainted. He reaches her before I can and proceeds to grab her roughly and drag her away. Looking around I see the others are too busy to help so throwing caution to the wind I run at the battlemaster pulling up my Biotics and throwing a pull at him. It shakes him but doesn't stop him. He turns dropping the doctor and reaching for me with a pull as he glows with Biotics as well. I drop under his arm and throw a Biotic charged punch. He actually grunts in pain with amount of power I threw into the punch with my one good arm. Unfortunately I can't move as quickly as I should and he grabs a hold of me. Thrashing as much as I can he starts squeezing and I feel something give in my chest. "AAAAAAARGHH" the pain hits me like a freight train. I start seeing red and pull up a dangerous amount of dark energy and hit him with a super concentrated singularity. I hear him start screaming and he drops me. As I fall on the ground I see the Krogan fall as well then everything turns to black and fades out.

**Hope I didn't drag on too much for this chapter. As always reviews are appreciated. Cheers if I meet anyone at Con. :)**


End file.
